BRS Online
by WillTheYordle
Summary: Fulldrive, a mysterious new company has created a new MMORPG more advanced than any game out there. Rick and his friends manage to get a few of the ten-thousand copies, but what they don't know is that BRS Online is more than just a game. Meanwhile, Black has been raised as a Keeper, sworn to protect Blue Rift. But she is betrayed by those in power, destined to change the world.
1. Chapter 1

**Alright so yes this is very, very late but better late than never! Remember everyone that there is no official schedule on this story (unlike The Story of Kevin) but I hope you like it anyway!**

**Chapter One: Blue Rift Sanctuary**

_Day 1_

_Date__: Friday, January 21__st__, 2015_

_Location:__ Timberfall High School_

_Time Until BRSO Release:__ 15 Hours 20 minutes_

Rick hadn't dressed warm enough, he still felt the cold of the snow through two pairs of socks and his shoes. Maybe he should have taken up his mothers offer to use her winter boots today, even if he could take off one pair of socks when he got to school they would still be soaking by the time he had to walk back home, and his shoes wouldn't be dry by then either. There wasn't time to go back home, his school was only a block away now anyway, and Rick was too excited to care about his feet anyway.

Today was the big day, he had waited almost two years for this day, the release for the most anticipated game of the decade, Blue Ridge Sanctuary Online. To Rick, this game had the strangest name of any he had played in the past, but it was going to be the best game he had ever played regardless.

Unlike most other Massive Multiplayer Online games of the day, Blue Rift Sanctuary Online used a type of coding no one had ever seen before, and all of the A.I.'s used for the NPC's were more advanced than anything ever created. Acording to reviews, if not for the game telling you, there is only one way to tell the difference between a player and an NPC. With the build in voice chat that's required for the game, it's possible to even hold a casual conversation with one.

Rick had made sure to pre-order one of the only ten-thousand copies as soon as he could, and he considered himself lucky to be playing. For some reason the company that had created this game hadn't required any payments of arms or legs, and was actually a lower price than most new games of the day. Considering the lack of potential income, the game wasn't expected to last more than a few months.

Finally on school grounds, Rick hurried over towards the commons, hurring around people bunched up in small huddles talking in loud voices, it was like a sea of noise, each group talking louder to make sure they were heard but not shouting to avoid the attention of the teachers that patrolled the area looking for some juvenile delinquent to break the rules.

Not that many students would, the commons was small enough that if anything were to happen, everyone would know almost instantly. Any small corners of the room were occupied by staff doing some kind of job that no one really cared to understand. The walls of the commons were lined with various posters advertising upcoming events, the Winter dance, the basketball game later that evening, and whatever special the café had going on right now.

The center of the commons was a sea of heads. Round tables littered the room, scattered in the same way they always were, without a pattern but yet always in the same place. In the center of it all on the wall which hid the rest of the school from our eyes. Weaving his way through the crowd, Rick sat down at a somewhat empty table in the corner of the room, the place where he and his friends would commonly gather before and after school.

"Why if it isn't the glorious king of face-plants!" Rick sat down, ignoring the playful insult from his friend Sofia, currently the only one sitting at the table.

"Where is everyone this morning? I'm usually the last one here." Sofia sighed and shrugged.

"I wish I knew, we need to make sure everyone knows where to meet up after school today." Rick folded his arms on the table, remembering the one time their scheduling coordination had been way off.

"Yeah, we definitely don't want that to happen again, especially not with our pre-ordered copies on the line." Blue Rift had a very different type of account system from most games, in the sense that the account you were using wasn't your own. You weren't required to put in any personal information short of a username and password, both of which would be wiped along with your character data if you didn't play the game in a week, and should that happen your account goes to the first person on a very long waiting list. For some reason, Fulldrive, the company that created BRSO, didn't want more than ten-thousand people playing the game at any one time.

"I still don't understand why Fulldrive had to go and make it only available to so few. There are over seven billion people on this planet!" Sofia whined in protest.

"It may be because the company spent so much on creating the game they didn't have enough left for a bigger server." Looking over his shoulder, Rick noticed Scott and Colin standing behind him, each holding the same history textbook.

"Hey there you two, glad you could finally join us. So Colin, failed to take care of that history report Wednesday night like you said you would?" Colin rolled his eyes and took a seat on Rick's left.

"Well when you have to choose between a hot date and doing a history report…" Colin grinned, showing teeth that looked way too white to belong to any normal person, "I'll go with the girl every time."

"We're well aware of that Colin, which is why you had to ask me for help to get that report done this morning. I'm also going to assume that since we haven't met her yet, the date didn't go well." Rick and Sofia snickered as Colin rounded on Scott.

"What did you just say? That date went spectacularly! Great dinner, good movie-"

"And then you screwed up at the end of the date by insulting her with one of your bad jokes!" Rick interrupted, causing everyone to laugh. Colin sighed and leaned back in his chair, clearly defeated.

Deep down, Rick did feel somewhat sorry for Colin. He was a fantastic friend, one of the best gamers he had ever met, and was by far the funniest class clown he had ever had in his years in the public education system. The only fault Colin had was had was an inability to get himself a girlfriend, and now that we were halfway through our Junior year, it seemed pretty likely that he wouldn't have a date for prom.

"How many does this make this month Colin?" Scott asked hitting down on the opposite side of the table from Colin, who held up four fingers.

"Four? Man, you just don't have any luck with women!" Sofia exclaimed, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm just hoping the girls in BRSO will be my type." Colin grumbled. Everyone laughed, it was just like Colin to try and go after any pretty girl, real or virtual.

"Speaking of which, does everyone remember the plan for today?" the laughter died down as the topic got more serious. Sofia was the first to answer.

"Of course, right after school we all meet you in the back parking lot to drive up to Silver Creek and pick up our copies of BRSO, then we spend the next two and a half days playing until we drop, since we don't have any reports or projects due on Monday."

"Remember that there has been no information about the types of classes that will be available for selection, so what's the plan for in game characters?" Rick asked, already knowing the answer but did so because this was the time to review the _whole_ plan for the next two and a half days.

"I'll pick the class that has the closest thing to heavy artillery, Scott picks an assassin, Sofia a sniper, and Rick get's a tanky mid-range class." Rick nodded his approval.

"And what's our first goal again?" Sofia asked with a scheming grin on her face.

"Trick question, there are two starting goals." Scott said in a neutral tone, Rick looked sharply at the pair, he wasn't aware that there was a _second_ starting goal, and he had come up with the plan! "The first of which is to punch Rick's avatar the second we meet up," _of course it is!_ "And the second is to establish the Star Busters guild as fast as possible."

"Everything short of slapping my avatar is correct, alright so everyone is clear on the plan."

"How could it be anything but clear? We've been talking about this plan since BRSO's release date was announced six months ago!" Colin laughed, and the bell warning students to get to their first period classes rung.

"Great, I don't know how I'm going to concentrate now that Scott's got me riled up to hit Rick's avatar." Sofia muttered as she and Colin headed for their English classroom. Rick watched them go, wondering what BRSO was going to be like. He may have come up with a plan for the group, if Fulldrive had decided to release more information about the game.

Everything had first been announced two years ago when it was reported that a new company called Fulldrive Games was going to reinvent the gaming world with technology that should have been a dozen years in the future. Everyone was excited and hyped, demanding to know an estimated release date for this game, or even what its name was. Rick had watched the development with interest, but sadly nothing new came out for a year and a half other than small, useless tidbits of information that let everyone know that this game wasn't dead.

Everything exploded once again six months ago when Fulldrive revealed Blue Rift Sanctuary Online, a game where the NPC's acted like real people, and the players were coming to the world of the floating continent as warriors from another dimension called Guardians to defend the world against the evil Thilan empire. Some minor gameplay was also revealed, with incredible graphics and with a new technology that required the game be played with voice chat. But sadly beyond those details, no one knew anything.

"Does it worry you that we know so little about this company or this game?" Scott asked as he gathered his bags, drawing Rick out of his thoughts.

"To be honest it doesn't, the lack of knowledge about the game and the world surrounding it excites me." Rick also stood up and flug his backpack over his shoulder, the two of them walking towards a door on the other side of the commons.

"Historically speaking, most MMO's that have been released this way end up duds." Rick looked up at Scott as they neared their classroom.

"I've never been one to believe that History repeats itself. What do you think?"

"I think a company doesn't spend more than two years on a game for nothing, and this game will be a stepping stone for much better games." Rick walked into his first period class trying to shake off the ominous feeling he was getting thanks to this conversation. _Great, one too many books again._

Rick's first class was History with Mr. Witchman, who despite his name was the most appreciated teacher in the school for how good his lessons were. He had a voice that commanded your attention in a way that made you want to. To Rick, it was a shame that he was teaching United States history, although it was hard to see him teaching algebra with how energetic his personality is.

The room was decorated with posters of famous Americans, George Washington hung on the wall above the turn-in box, Abraham Lincoln was next to the new touch-screen board, and Uncle Sam was watching us from the door. From day one of the year Rick had banished himself to the corner of the room so he could get away with doing some programming or research work on his smart-phone for the majority of class. It wasn't that Rick didn't enjoy history, it was that he picked up on it so quickly he didn't need to listen to Mr. Witchman's lectures, and the only homework was reading the textbook. The tests were brutal, but easy if you actually read the material.

Unlike Rick, Scott had a little harder time with History. The textbook gave all the details needed to pass the final, but Scott was a conceptual guy, he didn't memorize facts as well as Rick, so he often needed to know every detail about the time period to find an answer and understand it, otherwise he went crazy.

As Mr. Witchman dove into his lecture about the reconstruction after the Civil war, Rick pulled his mobile from his pocket and logged into the school's Wi-Fi, making sure to bypass all the security measures in place that prevented him from doing his work. The first thing Rick did was check the official BRSO website, not that he expected to find anything there, which he didn't.

After a brief moment of disappointment Rick dived into his programming work, the words of his teacher sounded like muffled ramble, a background noise that wasn't completely unpleasant. Developing a program that would let him interact with the BRSO characters away from his computer, making the virtual world he loved so much more accessible. It was all made possible by a secret post from one of the developers of BSRO gave out coding information that would let people make mobile apps to use their in game characters to communicate with the Smart NPC's within the game if used correctly. Rick was planning on using this released code to interact with Smart NPC's when they were in school and needed to interact with the game. Rick always wanted to do something like this, but no game was advanced enough until now.

"Rick." Rick's head snapped up from his phone, quickly scanning his eyes back and forth across the room, he saw that all eyes on him, including his teachers. Rick's face grew hot as he realized that he had been so focused on the program he had forgotten to keep an ear open to any questions that Mr. Witchman might ask him, since it was obvious that he wasn't paying even the slightest attention to his teacher.

This wasn't the first time this had happened, and luckily for Rick many of the students in his history class were also gamers who understood what he was up to. Like the many other times before, a small paper was slid towards him from one of his classmates with the question Mr. Witchman had asked. _What is the definition of Sharecropping?_

"A rent system where free former slaves would remain on a plantation, and the payment for staying was labor." Rick answered calmly, silently hoping that his classmate hadn't been trying to trick him with the note.

"That's exactly right Rick, very good." Mr. Witchman hadn't pointed out that Rick had needed a note to even know what the question was, his way of saying to pay attention without making a small spectacle out of it. Rick made sure to follow where the lesson was going as his continued his work, moving a lot slower since he was paying closer attention to the lesson than he normally would. He was glad he had such sympathetic classmates, of course they only reason they were helping him out was because they also had managed to get their hands on a copy of the BRSO game and wanted to see Rick's app completed.

After spending another forty minutes splitting his attention between history and programming, the bell rang for class to end. Rick's head shot up from his phone in surprise. The ball always caught him off guard, no need to watch the time when you're trying to accomplish something. Rick quickly closed his textbook and notebooks, stuffing them into his backpack as fast a s he could, not wanting to be the last person out of the classroom again.

"Still spending history working on your app?" Scott asked rhetorically.

"It's almost there Scott, but we both know I'm too lazy to work on it at home." Scott frowned but said nothing more as they departed for their next class.

"At least pay enough attention so our classmates don't have to bail you out every time Witchman asks a question. It's embarrassing to watch."

"I'll make sure I work on that." Rick replied with a nervous smile. _Only fourteen more hours until Blue Rift Sanctuary, I can't wait!_

_Day 1_

_Date__: Friday, 1__st__ Month, 21__st__ day, 1017__th__ year D.A. (Dark Ages)_

_Location:__ Obroseon Science and Technology Headquarters, Guardian Launch Room_

_Time Until BRSO Release:__ 14 Hours_

Black watched from her post as the ten councilors lead by two scientists looked around the massive chamber. Almost a mile high and easily a half mile in diameter, this was easily the largest spire in the Kingdoms. A project almost eight years in the making, and even though all of these councilors had overseen the construction, it looked like the completed building was a new wonder to them. Leaning on the wall next to the large sliding door, Black watched without much interest. Ever since the Guardians had been revealed to her and her fellow Keepers eight years ago and her future on the front lines of battle, which she had been training for since her birth had been taken from her, she had little interest in hearing about anything related to the Guardian project. It was supposed to offer the Kingdoms a future, but not for her.

"So this is it?" A tall woman, dressed in the Obroseon council robes asked seriously, one of the two councilors who weren't fazed by the sight of the many thousands of preservation tanks.

"Yes, all of the Guardians will be ready for launch in fourteen hours when the link system has been completed." The head scientist replied calmly.

"Finally" a man in Kheawuton robes smirked, "we have the answer for those Thilan scum." Black stifled the building rage within her, desperately trying to keep her left eye from flaring. Despite having been tossed aside like rotten bread it wasn't her place to question the decisions of those in power.

"That may be true Councilor Raan, but please remember that the Guardians won't be ours to control, they'll have their own will." Raan turned and threw a stone cold glare at the lead scientist.

"What do you mean by 'they won't be ours to control?'" The scientist flinched for a moment but managed to avoid crumbling beneath the Kheawuton councilor. Of all the councilors, Kheawuton's were known to be the most forceful in what decisions they wanted passed. They had the commanding attitude of military generals, since they were the kingdom that controlled Blue Rift's armies. But Raan was more forceful than any Black had ever heard of, bullying the other councilors into voting how he wanted them to.

"He means that these Guardians that we're summoning aren't robots Raan, their free spirits who think that their playing a game rather than saving the Kingdoms." An Obroseon councilor replied forcefully. Raan didn't look at all convinced, if anything just more angry and willing to smack his fellow councilwoman.

"You don't think I'm painfully aware of that Jude? We need an army, not a bunch of renegade children, at least the Keepers could follow orders!"

"Raan, I think we're all aware why Project Keeper was discontinued." A third councilor gestured in Blacks direction, Black didn't quite understand why but Raan got a sly grin on his face after that. With a grunt from the lead scientist, he pulled the attention of the squabbling council members.

"Yes well, getting back to why you're all here." The scientist led the councilors over to a platform that appeared to be some kind of elevator. Black was motioned over by the other scientist accompanying the head, Black wished she knew their names, but dismissed the desire as unimportant as she complied, stepping onto one of the far corners of the platform to prevent her bulky cannon from bumping into any of the council members on the journey.

With the push of a button, the platform dropped instead of rising as Black had expected it to. They descended slowly through the floor down to a basement that she didn't know existed. The room was fairly simple but huge, bleachers that ringed the outside of the massive room that could hold almost fifteen-thousand people, shimmers of holo-screens and sound boxes everywhere, and a small stage about four feet in diameter in the center. _What is this for; it looks like it could house every single Guardian at once!_

"This is the initiation room, where a selected representative from the council will educate the Guardians on their purpose, explain the rules, and inform them of how the system works." The lead scientist explained as the elevator stopped a foot off the ground, stairs extending from the front side onto the four foot stage. The councilors took it in for a moment, and then Raan rounded on the lead scientist.

"There's something that's been nagging at me Doctor Eastil, you explained that making a new Guardian would take almost four years, and they're _very_ expensive for us to produce, so what happens when we run out?" Eastil, despite the highly aggressive tone of the councilor, didn't flinch at this question.

"Yes that's been bothering me as well," Jude looked around at the seating arrangements as she jumped in to support Councilor Raan's accusation. "How could ten-thousand Guardians stand up to the billions of troops of the Thilan Empire, and then of course there is the question of whether the wielders of the Guardians will even be capable of completing their assigned tasks." Eastil held up a hand to stop Jude and prevent the other councilors from making comments of their own, and some looked like they were about to ask more demanding questions. Eastil glanced at Black briefly before speaking, and something about that look but Black on edge.

"Yes well, the Guardians use the same revival system as the Keepers, which you all already know. But since the skill of Guardian pilots is unknown, we developed a system that will teleport a group of Guardians back to their stasis chambers if they all defeated in combat, therefore we hopefully will not lose a single Guardian before we can prepare more."

"_Hopefully?_ Eastil we were already divided on this plan when you presented it, and now you're saying we're _hopefully_ not going to lose a Guardian for four years?" An enraged Raan approached Eastil, clearly out to give the scientist some bruises before Jude stepped in his path.

"You and I both know that it's better than having to raise a new Keeper from scratch, and Eastil has assured us that the Guardians are even more resistant to injury. It's not like we're sending them down to the Thilan's front door, this is just to buy us time to figure out why the barrier went down." Raan snarled at Eastil but stopped trying to reach for him.

Inwardly, Black sighed, disappointed in the Kheawuton councilor. Councilor Raan got overly aggressive for not getting _exactly_ what he wanted, and Black never heard of a time where he used calm diplomacy to achieve his goals. Put simply, he was terrible at dealing with people unless it was to stab them with a sword or shoot them with his shotgun. It wasn't a combination for a man in politics.

Realizing that she was allowing herself an opinion, she stopped herself. As a Keeper, her job was to guard, protect, and serve. Opinions, ideas, and strategy were to be left to humans. Black had often gotten into trouble when she was younger for thinking on her own, and she had a scar on her knee from being punished for that reason when she was only a few years old.

"So even if a group of Guardians are defeated in battle, they'll be sent back here instead of getting captured or killed?" Councilor Jude asked in confirmation.

"That's exactly right councilor, however as you may expect, we don't want a group of Guardian pilots who can't do their duty, so if a team of Guardians have to be sent back here, their pilots will be discharged and replaced, we have more than enough pilots from the other world on standby." Eastil's answer didn't surprise Black too much, the Kingdoms weren't very tolerant of military failures, especially with their very existence at stake. There was a grunt from the assistant scientist, who tapped on his wristwatch. This meeting was supposed to be short, squeezed in before a major council meeting, or at least that's what Black had overheard. Eastil gathered the attention of all the council members.

"Yes, well as to why I brought you down here. As I explained earlier, when we launch the project later tonight, we'll need someone to explain all of the rules and regulations to the Guardians. I'll need to be on staff in case the impossible happens, and I think it would be best to have one of our leaders do it."

"Isn't the choice obvious by now science geek? Military matters are to be handled by a Kheawuton council member, I'll do it." Councilor Jude rounded on Raan with a look of annoyance finally creeping into her normally neutral expression.

"Aren't you forgetting that you're not allowed to nominate yourself for anything for the rest of the cycle because of your last failure? Besides, we need someone who can actually teach our Guardians law." Councilor Raan gritted his teeth and looked ready to charge his fellow councilwoman, but a hand on his shoulder from the other Kheawuton councilor stopped him.

"She's right Raan, and besides, we need to get the Guardians to cooperate with us, not go join up with the enemy the first chance they get." It was obvious that Raan wanted to protest further, but had enough sense to know that he was outnumbered. _Surprising that a Kheawuton councilor would agree with Councilor Jude._ Black realized she gave herself another opinion and tried to stop thinking altogether.

"You won't be deciding now," Eastil commented with amusement, "I've already submitted the paperwork to get the decision on today's council vote, so you won't be deciding that here." Black caught several Council representatives rolling their eyes, Black was glad she wasn't going to be in the Chamber of the Council for that. The rest of her day was going to be patrolling the Guardian building for possible Thilan saboteurs.

For the rest of the explanation, Councilor Raan didn't try to start any more arguments, to Black he was showing a miraculous amount of control, but maybe this is how he was when he wasn't fired up over something. This was after all, her first time seeing the members of the council in person.

There weren't too many details left, and they were all complicated politics that didn't concern Black in the slightest. Soon, it was time for the councilors to leave for their next meetnig, and everyone was back on the elevator, Black standing in the corner keeping an eye on the scene in case Raan got suddenly violent or an assassin had somehow snuck in. She was careful that way, in training she had never fallen for an ambush or a surprise stealth attack.

"Councilors, thank you for taking the time to preview the future of Blue Rift, I assume the agreement reached yesterday is still in effect?" Jude nodded.

"Yes, Black, your orders are to follow Dr. Eastil to your new holding chamber." Black felt confused but held a straight face.

"Yes ma'am, if I may, what is my new assignment?" Black followed Eastil off the elevator and down the stairs. Councilor Jude didn't reply for a moment but then gave Black a cold stare.

"You have none. The Keepers have had their purpose changed." Black felt even more confused than before. Repurposed? But for what? The Keepers were only taught how to fight and survive, they had no other skills. What could they do besides fight the Thilan? Councilor Raan laughed the most maniacal laugh Black had ever heard.

"It's quite simple girl, you and your Keepers are outdated, so you're now going to kill each other for our amusement!" Black tried as hard as she could, but the rising feeling of horror and betrayal was something her training hadn't prepared her for. She was being asked to kill her fellow brothers and sisters, for nothing more than to please the council!

Too stunned to even try to pull out her cannon to shoot Raan or any of the other council members, she blindly followed Eastil until she was put in an almost prison like room, bars over the windows, force shields over the door and lining the walls so she couldn't escape. Black sat on the hard bed holding her legs to her chest, her cannon and sword still equipped from her last duty as a Keeper soldier. She and the rest had been replaced, and she knew that she didn't just hate the Council, she hated the Guardians too.

_ If I ever get out, we'll kill the Guardians, the Council, and the every scientist that worked here. And then we'll be the one's running Blue Rift and the Five Kingdoms._

_Day 1_

_Date__: Friday, 1__st__ Month, 21__st__ day, 1017__th__ year D.A. (Dark Ages)_

_Location:__ Chamber of the Council, Obroseon_

_Time Until BRSO Release:__ 11 Hours_

Councilor Aland had been disappointed when he hadn't been chosen to go see the finishing touches on Project Guardian, but at the same time he was relieved. He had supported Project Keeper until the bitter end, and now he could only try and quietly rally protests for their freedom once the games started. It sickened him, even if these were battle trained warriors, it seemed wrong to have teenagers kill each other over and over again for sport.

"So with a vote of seventeen to six, Councilor Jude will represent the Kingdoms at the Guardian imitation." Jude stood and gave a respectful bow.

"I'm honored, I will do my best to convey the wishes of the council to our newest warriors." Aland leaned back in his chair, thinking to himself how well Jude was playing this council. Almost every decision had gone her way since she got the position almost a full cycle ago, and the bright future that he believed the Kingdoms were reaching at long last seemed further away than ever before.

With the last decision of the day made, Councilor Yeman stood.

"We'll reconvene tomorrow afternoon to assess the progress of the Guardians. Dismissed." As formal procedure required, every Councilor stood and bowed, showing respect to the work that they were doing, or at least that's what it meant in Yeman's mind.

Collecting his notes into his brown shoulder bag, Yeman moved with anticipation, excitement, and sadness. Despite not actually talking to the Keepers, he loved to watch them train. To Yeman, they were almost his own children. From the shadows, he had helped care for them, teach them, and prepare them.

And now he was to watch them destroy each other.

Leaving from the Chamber of Council, Yeman moved with at a rushed pace. The Keepers were going to be transferred to specialized holding cells later in the day, and he wanted at least one chance to meet his warriors face to face before they were sent to their deaths. _I must find a way to save those kids!_

The streets of Obroseon were packed, even in the political districts. Important men and women forced to pack together as they walked to their varying directions, each of them talking through a mobile device, talking about some small profit deal or another, each one trying to get ahead of the system.

To Yeman, this wasn't as important to him, he wasn't stupid enough to ignore the profit side of the business entirely but held onto his own ideals, an equal kingdom free of the Thilan like the days in the old tales. Of course, science, mathematics, and art had all progressed incredibly fast in the thousand years under Thilan attack, mostly by the desire to survive. It had improved society for the better, but decisions like the one involving the Keepers proved that Blue Rift Sanctuary was far from perfect.

After getting from the Chamber of Council building, which lay in the center of the city, to the outer edge of the science district almost three miles away, Yeman looked up at the tall spire that held the Guardians. The Keepers were held and trained in a facility directly under the large spire, even further underground than the Guardians initiation room, which to all public knowledge was the lowest floor. A special elevator could take you down to the Keeper levels, and Yeman was one of the few outside the facility with clearance to go inside.

Yeman entered through the double automatic sliding doors that acted as the main entrance to the facility. It was protected by two soldiers armed with special stun weapons that looked more intimidating than their actual effectiveness, pitch black with a red design paint that traced various skills and stun counts for each one. All Yeman needed to do was show his I.D. and he was let inside without a word.

Once inside, the lobby was decently sized with fantastic interior design in Yeman's opinion. Dark blue walls with teal trim and rugs, with black floorboards. There were varying portraits and artistic background paintings that lined the walls, giving a calming, welcoming appearance despite the fact that only the Guardians were going to be allowed in and out of the building. There was no front desk, only two doors, each with a guard posted to keep normal citizens out.

Yeman went to the door on the right, the extra storage space for Guardian equipment and personal storage. Like the front entrance, he only had to show his identification to the guard to get inside. Instead of following the hallway that led to the various rooms, he immediately turned to his right and placed his I.D. in front of a hidden camera in the wall.

With a small flash of light that ringed the rim of the opening, an elevator opened up, taking Yeman down to the lower basement, where he was going to meet his Keepers at long last. They didn't know it was coming and Yeman didn't expect them to come running up to him like some long lost father, but it would put a smile on his face, and they needed to know that he wasn't going to let them be toys for long.

When the elevator finally stopped, the doors opened to reveal one of the female scientists moving a stack of boxes inside the elevator. As Yeman walked past the young woman, he noticed one of the boxes was labeled KEEPER DNA. _Notes, so they really are getting ready to move them._

The "spectator box" as the science geeks called it wasn't too far from the main lab, using slanted windows for easy observation of the action below. Yeman knew the schedule by heart, and today was sparring day. Right now, he expected Black to be squaring off against Dust, but to his shock and surprise he didn't find anyone in the arena. _Could they already have been moved? No, that isn't possible, the council decided to move them _after_ the launch of Project Guardian._

Needing answers, Yeman headed into the main lab, where he found dozens of metal containers probably filled with various science supplies, but only one or two scientists in the room.

"Councilor Yeman, I didn't see you there." Yeman turned around to find Doctor Eastil, behind him.

"Eastil, where are the Keepers? I would think they'd be practicing one last time before the transfer." Yeman kept his tone neutral, trying to mask his rising frustration.

"My apologies Councilor, but we received orders to move the Keepers today. We would have alerted you, but we had orders not to tell anyone about the transfer." _What? But who would have the authority? I made sure anything involving the Keepers has to at least cross my desk!_

"Where have they gone Eastil?" Yeman was slowly losing his ability to contain his anger, his voice rising to a shout. However Eastil remained calm, and seemed to have a smug expression on his face.

"I'm afraid have orders not to tell you that either. The Keepers are outdated Councilor, and we'll learn much more from watching them go all out killing one another, and maybe we'll find a way to improve the Guardians. Who knows? Maybe one of your Keepers will actually survive to the end." Yeman shoved his way past Eastil and headed for the elevator up.

He couldn't believe it, the Keepers he had put so much time into working on and indirectly raising were now slaves of the council, or more likely whoever had ordered that early transfer. Something didn't feel right about this whole situation, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

**Chapter one complete! No action yet, and it looks like Black Rock has already gotten herself into a bit of a bind! Please leave a comment and I'll see you all soon with chapter two!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry this one took so long guys, life and my other story happened! But I'd say a ten-thousand word chapter should help make up for it. Four reviews already is amazing, thanks for your comments and hope you enjoy the reading!**

**EDIT: Dangit I messed up with a perspective detail and corrected it. Yes I literally just changed one word in the chapter, it was going to bug me.**

**Chapter Two: Project Guardian**

_Day 1_

_Date__: Friday, 1__st__ Month, 21__st__ day, 1017__th__ year D.A. (Dark Ages)_

_Location:__ Councilor Yeman's Apartment, Obroseon_

_Time Until BRSO Release:__ 4 Hours_

The first thing Yeman had done when he got back to his apartment had been to call his friend and fellow councilor Justin. Having served on the council for two three years terms to Yeman's two years of experience, he was often the person he went to for advice and ideas, despite his friend being a councilor from Haweth, the Kingdom of all manufacturing.

To Yeman's amazement, Justin was just as surprised as Yeman was to find out that the Keepers had been moved half a day early. Justin, although surprised, didn't think of it as a big deal, but was obviously trying to avoid sounding too impartial, aware of the connection Yeman had to those kids.

"Justin, I know you may not think this is a big deal, but how did this happen without me at least hearing about it first? You'd think with how often I was down in that lab I would have heard about the transfer time." Yeman was losing his patience, but a voice in the back of his head was telling him that Justin wasn't going to offer much help in this situation.

"Yeman this really isn't a big deal, so you didn't get to see the kids one last time before they were shipped off to their cells, so what? You'll see them tonight." _Killing each other, like hell I'm going to that stadium._ Yeman thought to himself. There was no way in Thilan he was going to watch the children he had an indirect hand in raising slaughter each other for the amusement of the new Guardians. Justin let out a sigh.

"Look, they were shipped off without you knowing, if that's it I don't see why you can't just go to their cells and say hello now." In his anger, Yeman had forgotten about that detail. He had been so focused on the wrong transfer time and the aggressive, arrogant attitude of Eastil that he had totally forgotten that the scientist had denied Yeman the new location of the Keepers.

"When I asked about that they said they had orders not to tell me?" Justin was silent for a moment, searching for words.

"But, there shouldn't be anyone in Blue Rift with the authority to prevent you from learning that information, the Keepers are official council business, we have the right to know anything and everything involving those kids." _Now I'm getting somewhere._

"I'm thinking they had to have been bribed, somehow. It's the only explanation for this." Yeman stated with careful confidence.

"Possibly, but withholding this information is against the law, Eastil can easily be arrested and charged with treason."

"Unless the order came from a Kheawuton councilor classifying the Keepers as a wartime secret, which would be possibly since…"

"Since the Keepers are by all definition combat ready." Justin finished. Yeman pulled at his hair, resisting the urge to scream his frustration into the earpiece. This was absolutely crazy, and it didn't make sense either.

"But what would a Kheawuton councilor gain by moving the Keepers early to a secret location?" Yeman asked, half to himself.

"Could be that someone in Kheawuton didn't like how close you were to those kids." Yeman shook his head.

"But why go through the trouble just to stop me from seeing them? All but one of those kids will be dead by dawn tomorrow." Yeman was pacing hard now, having walked all over his apartment at least four times, and now he was pouring himself a drink to try and get himself to calm down a little.

"This is a problem Yeman, if one of the councilors is able to bypass the council and use the Keepers for their personal agenda, the balance of power will tip, and things are already pretty unstable in the council as it is." Yeman let out the breath he was holding. Justin always thought big picture, a lot more so than he did, and this time his friend really put it in perspective. At first, Yeman had called to vent his anger, and now they were facing a potential political crisis. _Great Sanctuary, could this day get any worse?_

"Alright, we need to start looking for connections. If our theory is right about a Kheawuton councilor being behind this, that's the first place we should be looking."

"Agreed, goodnight Yeman."

"Goodnight." As Justin ended the call, Yeman dared not hope that somehow exposing this before the midnight event would somehow stop the Keepers from being killed, more likely he could save the survivor with this, and even then that was a very optimistic outcome.

However despite his desire to save the Keepers, he couldn't tell Justin about Eastil's reaction to Yeman's rather brutal line of questioning. Eastil had called the Keepers "outdated" but they probably had more combat experience than any of the Guardians, so what did Eastil mean by it? _And what is he planning…_

_Day 1_

_Date__: Friday, 1__st__ Month, 21__st__ day, 1017__th__ year D.A. (Dark Ages)_

_Location:__ Unknown Holding Cell, Kingdom Unknown._

_Time Until BRSO Release:__ 3 Hours_

Black hadn't moved in forever, her chest hurt too much to try. The cells appeared to be separated, divided by massive walls of metal, the element she didn't recognize. Normally it wouldn't matter, since her Cannon could blast through it, but whoever designed the cell had her in mind. Energy barriers prevented her from destroying anything but the mattress, and Black saw no point in destroying that. Doctor Eastil and the strange men he had been with had let her keep her weapons for what it was worth, probably so she could tear apart her fellow Keepers later.

Pain was always a sensation Black had been able to ignore in the past. If she was shot, bones broken, it didn't matter to her as long as she could stand and fight. But this was different, a pain that she couldn't fully hold down.

The pain of betrayal.

"_Black, seriously it's been hours, come on answer!"_ Black didn't respond to the cries in her mind. It was the one best kept secret of the Keepers, the one they had agreed to never share to the science team, and somehow they never managed to detect. Somehow, the Keepers were able to communicate telepathically when close enough to each other, allowing them to communicate in combat without wasting oxygen to do it. They hadn't found any barriers to the communication other than distance either, so they could talk despite the steel walls, but Black didn't want to talk to anyone.

The calls that disturbed Black's silence were coming from Red Crystal Gunner, one of the last Guardians created and the emotional rally of the group. Like Black, most of the Keepers didn't allow themselves to show emotion, because emotion led to moral conflict, which hindered ability to follow orders and be effective warriors. Crystal was the one Keeper who didn't have this issue, maybe it was out of necessity to stay hidden among her comrades, or it was because she hadn't actually been placed in a killing position until now.

_"Black please, I'm scared and no one else is talking, they all believe that we're going to have to kill each other! Tell me it isn't true!"_

_ "We will have to destroy one another. The rumors you hear are true Crystal."_ Black replied in a monotone voice.

_"But why? Why raise us for sixteen years only to have us destroy each other? I thought we were going to be fighting the Thilan Empire along with the armies of Blue Rift!"_ So did Black, but clearly that wasn't their purpose anymore, and nor was it her purpose to protect her fellow Keepers anymore. Now her only goal was to survive, but what after that? She enjoyed having a purpose, save Blue Rift. Merely surviving sure would be a challenge, but didn't appeal to Black. And on top of that, thinking of killing the other Keepers worsened the tightness in her chest. Was this _guilt_ she was feeling for thinking about killing the comrades she had grown up with all her life?

_"Black please, I don't want to tear my family apart, and I'm sure deep down you feel the same. We're sisters, we trained together for as long as I've been alive, you won't just throw that away will you?"_ Black was conflict

ted. If she teamed up with Crystal and ended up defying the wishes of the council by not killing her, they would probably both end up dead. Her number one rule that she had been taught since birth was to survive without betraying the council. Although she could probably throw out the last part of that rule, teaming up with Crystal was sure to get her killed, and she knew she didn't need allies to survive anyway.

_"Crystal, our purpose now is to survive. If you cannot do that alone then you'll be the first of us to fall."_ Black could hear Crystal crying. _She really doesn't have the ability to control her emotions._ Black thought to herself.

_"I thought sensei had taught us to always stick together no matter what, but everyone is too busy worrying about the first rule to remember!"_ Black sat up slowly, her legs going over the side of the bed. She realized that Crystal was right. It had been the last rule Sensei had given them before he left when she was ten. "Always stick together, no matter what happens, or what twists are in the road." This was the one of the few memories of Sensei that was clear, and Black hadn't understood the meaning of it until now.

_"Crystal… thank you."_ Black sent, closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths. She may not be a soldier for Blue Rift anymore, but she could follow her Sensei's teachings to stay alive, and that meant finding a way out of here.

_"Wait, Black are you going to team up with me?" _Crystal asked in surprise.

_"No, no one is teaming up with anyone."_ Black replied firmly. _"We're going to find a way out of this, everyone is walking away alive."_ Black didn't feel pride or happiness as Crystal or humans probably did, but this made the pain in her chest go away, and from that she knew this was the right course of action.

_"Isn't this great Dead? Your plan is working!" _Black could feel the disappointment coming off Dead, who must have been secretly listening in on the conversation the whole time, completely shattering the secret that the whole plan to get Black on board with their Keeper alliance had been organized by the first generation Keeper.

_"I should have known you'd come up with something like this Dead."_ Dead Maser, a master scythe wielder, she was the other voice of reason for the Keepers when they were about to break out in fights that had been against the rules. Black was sure that behind closed doors, the scientists had debated the loyalty of Dead to the council because of how much she cared for everyone despite her equally neutral attitude to everything.

_"It's just as Sensei said six years ago, we must stick together, and that applies now more than ever."_

_ "Then we need a plan, they won't let us walk away from killing each other without a fight."_ Black responded.

_"We have four cannons including yours, I propose we shoot our way out."_ A simple plan, and normally one Black would support, but this time was different.

_"My cannon cannot pierce this wall Dead, and I think wherever we go, these walls will follow."_

_"A possibility I have considered, but there is no other option." _Meaning that once they got to the location of the fight, if they were trapped by the same walls that held each of them now, there would be no way to escape.

_"Then we must keep our senses open, and look for a new way to escape if there appears to be none."_

_"We're gonna be okay guys, I just know it!"_ Black couldn't help but feel a spark of amusement at Crystals child-like blind optimism.

_"How many of the Keepers have joined us?"_ Black asked Dead.

_"Roughly sixty-five percent, but everyone I have talked to has joined us so far." _They actually might have had a shot, it looked like every Keeper was going to join their cause, giving them a higher chance of success, not that their chances were very good anyway.

_"We must be prepared for the worst," _Black pointed out._ "The council will throw everything they have at us to prevent us from leaving them."_ Black didn't get a response from Crystal or Dead, probably because they were already talking to the other Keepers, who were probably out of range for Black to hear. They would probably rely on a relay system to get their message across to everyone.

The odds were stacked against them, and yet some of the top Keepers were still trying to find ways to survive. It was who they were, and the only thing they had left with their purpose gone.

_No, we have a new purpose, to protect each other, and make those who betrayed us pay for what they've done._

_Day 2_

_Date__: Saturday, January 22__nd__, 2015_

_Location:__ 729 Lefraneu Drive SE_

_12:00am, Launch of BRSO_

Rick rushed inside the house, kicking off his shoes in the general direction of the closet to be put away later. Rushing to the other end of the house to his bedroom, he flew into his chair, the force of the impact rolling it against the wall. Repositioning it, he took the BRSO disk out of its case, punching open the disk drive on his computer before carefully slamming the disk in place.

Starting up Cloud at the same time, Rick logged in to find his friends already in a Cloud call, probably discussing their installation process for BRSO, which Kevin was working on right now. The graphics for the loading screen were amazing, bright colors, beautiful images from various cities, fields, forests, and caves.

"I'm telling you that there is no way that forest isn't evil! Didn't you see the little rabbit looking thing in the corner of that shot?" Rick regretted entering the Cloud call at that exact moment, it was never good to walk in on Colin ranting about something when they got a new game.

"Colin, if there are evil rabbits in this game, they won't last long. Sharp, pointy teeth and cuteness aren't enough to deal with us." Sofia replied, probably rolling her eyes right now.

"Wait, when does that image come up?" Rick asked, making his smooth entrance into the conversation.

"The installer cycles through the same twenty images, it's the fifth one in the slideshow. The bottom right corner there's a small rabbit with red eyes." Colin's voice turned dark at the end of his last sentence to emphasize the evilness of the rabbit.

"BRSO is not Snakes and Mice Colin, this game is supposed to be a lot like reality, so I doubt that little rabbit would do very much to us even if it was aggressive." Scott replied calmly.

"But have you seen those eyes? That thing doesn't have a soul!" Rick could hear the hands of both Sofia and himself meet their foreheads out of reaction to Colin's terrible reference.

"Colin, no, just stop. If you try and kill an innocent creature because of this I _personally _will be the one to kill you." Colin muttered for a moment in protest but then fell silent. The slide show cycled through a few more times before our installations completed, all right at midnight, the game automatically launching.

At first Rick's screen was completely black, then the BRSO logo appeared in the center of the monitor with a light blue loading bar just under it. The group was silent, no one was speaking to one another as the bar was filling, probably on each of their screens, although Rick could hear Colin shifting loudly in his seat, waiting anxiously for the game to finish loading.

They all finished simultaneously, getting into the server together. Rick assumed that it was probably the same for anyone who was currently playing BRSO, which was probably all ten-thousand people who had a copy of the game, since they had gotten at least twenty messages each telling them to be logged into the game at the time of the launch or wait one week to start playing. For Rick, it was strange that they were that strict about start times, but didn't mind that much.

Without even a title screen or an introductory cinematic, the game launched right into character creation, asking your gender and age. Once that was completed, Rick's screen was bombarded with different options, all of which connected to body design, similar to some creature creation games, but a _lot_ more advanced, almost like 3D modeling for really smart dummies.

"Woah, I'm not sure I can follow this, this is too much!" Colin complained almost immediately. Everyone gave their silent agreement. Rick noticed a timer at the top of the screen with a note under it.

"It looks like we only have two hours to create our character, and considering how advanced these controls are, it could take that long to get our characters built." Rick sighed. "Alright let's figure this thing out." Despite the advanced look of the creator, it only took them fifteen minutes as a group to figure out the creator, and within another twenty minutes they all had body designs made, each mostly matching their own physical bodies for the most part, except for Colin who packed a lot more muscle onto his character. "I'm such a beef hunk" had been his deep voiced comment, prompting groans and bruising promises from Sofia. Silently, Rick was glad all the Guardians had at least been wearing underclothing.

Once the body design was done, clothing and attire was next.

"Wow they have so many choices, this is so much better than the mall!" Sofia squealed in excitement.

"There are almost one thousand possible choices for shirts alone, I'm glad that they put in a search function." Scott commented with a mild tone of surprise and respect. Rick agreed silently, picking out his own outfit that he was glad Sofia couldn't see. She was probably going to freak out when she saw. Yellow T-shirt, a blight light jacket over the top with dark blue shorts and black sneakers labeled 'combat sneakers.' Not exactly the most matching outfit in the world.

"Oh, there's so much pink available, and it doesn't cost a dime! I'm so sad I can't pick out more than one outfit!"

"Sofia is the prime example of every girl gamer out there right now who is playing this game at this very second." Colin joked. Sofia seemed to ignore the hidden slam behind the comment, too focused on her avatar.

"Oh would you look at these shorts, too cute!" The next twenty minutes was filled with Sofia making random comments about some article of clothing she would find, and wither or not to replace the older item with it.

Rick wanted to tear his hair out, since they had not agreed not to move on until everyone was done with the current step. _The last twenty minutes, can this girl ever run out of air?_ Rick thought as his friend began ranting about some kind of combat boots. Clearly his companions were starting to get annoyed as well, because the second Sofia stopped to breathe, Scott cut in.

"Sofia, as much as we enjoy hearing you browse the many options of BRSO, can we please move on?" After a brief pout of annoyance, Sofia sighed.

"Fine, but if they don't have some kind of item mall with all of these choices I'm going to sue this company." There was a loud frustrating 'click' sound as Sofia locked in her outfit, and Rick quickly followed behind.

Up next appeared to be the fun part for Rick, class selection. Unlike many MMORPG's Rick had played in the past, there was no choice of race, everyone was a human Guardian it appeared, and the screen showed five options for him to choose from. Shooter, Trooper, Sniper, Assassin, and Brawler. When Rick hovered over one of the options, it gave him a brief description of the classes skills, but there appeared to be no description of any special abilities.

Ruling out Sniper and Assassin quickly, Rick was left with Shooter, Trooper, and Brawler. Rick wasn't the kind to go charging into the middle of thirty enemies to be most effective so he ruled out the Brawler class, which appeared to be a kind of close range tank fighter. Lacking long range abilities, it didn't really suit Rick well.

Up next was Trooper, which looked like a lot of fun, but seemed like it lacked effectiveness and was counterproductive when paired with a Brawler due to the massive amount of explosions if friendly fire was enabled in this game, which left only Shooter. The class appeared to be nothing more than a simple soldier class, but it was well rounded and the most adaptive, the perfect fit for him.

"Aww man, look at all these rockets I can get with this class! Alright guys I'm going Trooper, don't try and stop me." Colin's choice didn't surprise anyone really, he had always been the explosive, trigger happy type of player.

"I'll stick with the plan and play an assassin, I assume the same goes for you Sofia?" Scotts question was answered by a squeal of excitement from Sofia.

"You bet! I'll be the cutest sniper in the whole game!" As everyone locked in their roles, Rick realized that they would have to play smart, they didn't have someone to soak up damage in the front line, meaning their tactics might have to play out in a guerilla style of play, the way they liked to do things.

"Man, if there's one thing about this game that I like, it's the number of explosives that the Troopers get, after all, the chicks dig a guy with a rocket launcher!" More groans.

"Rick can I please hit him?" Sofia asked with a pouty tone.

"Wait until we've met up in game Sofia, then yes, you can hit him." Rick answered with a grin as the game asked for a character name. Without thinking, he typed in Whitestar, his usual character name, confident that no one has taken it.

"Alright guys, roll call, character names. Whitestar." Rick started.

"DJStarswag" Colin answered.

"Fallen Rose." Sofia replied with an almost monotone voice, a hint of pride creeping through at the reveal of her name.

"Winston Business." The reveal of Scott's name led to what sounding like a spurting of water from Colin.

"What the hell, _Winston Business_? What kind of average ass name is that Scott?" Scott sighed.

"It's my name, and it doesn't attract attention, such is the nature of an assassin." He replied calmly.

"Whatever, I bet your Guardian doesn't look half as cool as mine does." Colin boasted.

"Knowing you Colin, you'll have the dumbest looking Guardian of anyone here." Rick replied with a laugh, prompting similar responses from the rest of the group.

"You guys suck." Colin complained. "So what's up next?" Rick turned his attention from the conversation back to his monitor, where the screen had various stats such as Strength and Agility. Each of them had a number to the right of the text with a plus button above the number and a minus button below. At the very top right of the screen was a counter that read _Points Remaining: 5_.

"Looking like we're putting some initial points into our characters." Rick observed.

"Yeah, but what's the deal with only giving us five points?" Scott complained in his usual whiny tone. "And why in hell does my Guardian have an agility of five when my strength is twenty? And my Health is nine-hundred?"

"Strange, my Guardian has a strength of twelve, health score of two-hundred thirty and an agility of twenty-five." Scott replied neutrally. "Could it be because of the different classes?" Rick gave the idea some thought.

"It might also be affected by how our characters are physically built, I have similar stats to yours Scott."

"Looks like it's the same for me, but my accuracy is almost forty already, what do you guys have for energy?" Sofia asked. Rick and Colin's Guardians had roughly five hundred energy each and Scott had almost eight hundred. "What? I only have about two hundred energy! That's not fair!" The whine from Sofia was almost childlike.

"Everyone spend your points wisely and check what stat your leveling, the amount of damage don't here doesn't appear to be influenced by the stats." Rick pointed out. Scott was quick to correct him on his error however.

"Hang on Rick, check out accuracy, 'increases your ability to hit vital organs on your target.' That sounds like more damage to me."

"It's possible that hitting the heart or head of someone would be a killing blow in this game no matter what the weapon." Sofia commented.

"Check out the focus stat as well, look how much it regenerates." Rick replied, drawing everyone's attention to his latest observation.

"Wow that's crazy, I get one hundred points per hour real time." Sofia commented.

"Me too, everyone else have one hundred per hour?" Colin asked, and both Rick and Scott answered with a yes. "This is going to be one low action game!" Scott have a 'hmm' of thought.

"It's almost like this game was modeled after real life. A real person couldn't fight for fifteen hours straight without a break."

"Wait, would that mean that _walking_ would take up energy as well?" Sofia asked in shock.

"It's possible." Rick's eyes went to an astric at the bottom of the page. "Hey look, it says here that stats are leveled through action, meaning we can probably improve our energy and focus just by playing the game and not pushing ourselves too hard."

"Meaning the more we play the game the more OP we get?" Colin asked rhetorically. "My kind of game." Rick decided to put two points in accuracy, two in agility and one in strength, to get a head start for when he eventually obtained a weapon that was heavy.

"Alright, well I've made up for the problems of my Guardian!" Colin declared.

"Don't tell me you put five points into agility!" Scott sighed. "Alright well you'll be able to lift heavy stuff and move fast, but when you don't have any energy or can't hit anything don't start whining."

"Don't be so hard on him!" Sofia protested. "I put four points into my own agility."

"Yes but the ability to reposition yourself quickly in one of the essentials of being a sniper." Scott reasoned.

"It doesn't matter, I doubt these five points will make a big difference early on, and having the extra agility will help a bulky Guardian like Colin's." Rick reasoned. "Is everyone done with their point distribution?"

"Yes." Was the almost synchronized reply from the group, and Rick clicked the 'Finish' button at the bottom of the screen, and his monitor went black for a moment, and it wasn't a slow fade, it went black immediately after he clicked the button, making him jump in surprise. Had his computer just crashed?

"Woah, woah, woah, something's up, my monitor just went black!" Colin shouted suddenly, and a feeling of relief washed over Rick.

"Same thing just happened to me Colin, don't worry about it." Suddenly, two timers appears at the top of the screen, one was at ten seconds and had text above it that read: 'all other programs will close in.' "Alright guys, it looks like we're going to be swapped over to the in game communication system, meaning I'll see you all on the other side!" A quick round of 'later's' and 'see you's' managed to get through before BRSO terminated Cloud, cutting off his communication to his friends.

Taking a look at the second counter, Rick realized that it matched the counter that was on the top of his screen when he was creating his character. One hour remaining until his Guardian would be launched into the world of BRSO, and he would be thrust into what he hoped would be a grand adventure that he and his friends could talk about for years to come.

Satisfied that he had some extra time on his hands, Rick got up from his desk to go make himself some food, since he hadn't eaten in a few hours. Looking through the fridge, he eventually decided on the leftover takeout pizza his family had saved from the night before. Even heated up in the microwave it tasted a little stale but Rick didn't mind, food was brain fuel, and he was going to need a lot of it to get through the night.

_Day 2_

_Date__: Saturday, 1__st__ Month, 22__nd__ day, 1017__th__ year D.A. (Dark Ages)_

_Location:__ Unknown Holding Cell, Kingdom Unknown._

_Time Until Guardian Launch:__ 1 Hour_

It had been almost two hours since Dead had informed Black that every Keeper was on board with the escape plan. They still hadn't managed to find any new details as to what field they would be placed in, but it wasn't like they could search for answers themselves when they were locked up, and nobody had even seen a guard since they had first been placed inside their strange, unknown prison.

_"One hour until they launch the Guardians."_ Black whispered, not really intending for anyone to hear her.

_"Why couldn't we have fought alongside the Guardians, I bet they're really cool!"_ Crystal exclaimed with excitement, like she was expecting one to enter her cell at any moment.

_"They're our replacements Crystal, we were never meant to see the field of battle."_Black replied neutrally.

_"We cannot know for sure what the intentions of the council might be Black. All we know is that they now want us dead."_ Dead was right of course, but Black still couldn't help but wonder what the point in raising them for seventeen years was if they were only going to be killed in one big bloody event.

Sudden movement in front of her cell caught Black's eye and her head snapped up. Two scientists with three Obroseon guards armed with high powered stun rifles, although they looked slightly different which led Black to believe that they were experimental.

One of the guards disabled the shield protecting the front of the cell, letting one of the scientists and a guard inside before re-activation, once again trapping Black and preventing any chance of escape.

"Hey there, we need to give you an injection before your big event tonight, so sit still for me alright?" The scientist pulled out a syringe and slowly approached Black, clearly expecting her to attack him. Her gaze quickly darted over to the guard, who already had his weapon pointed at her, safety off. Knowing that trying anything now would be suicide, Black simply let the scientist circle around behind her and inject something into the back of her neck. She could feel the shot but didn't react; pain was something to be ignored.

Almost immediately after the task was completed, the pair retreated outside the cell and moved on without a word. Black watched them go, wondering if they were going to do this to the other Guardians.

_"Black, were you injected as well?"_ Dead asked after a few moments.

_"Yes."_ Soon they learned that every Keeper had been injected in the same location, and Black could only assume that this was a kill switch if they decided to escape. Their chances for victory got slimmer every passing moment.

_Day 2_

_Date__: Saturday, January 22__nd__, 2015_

_Location:__ 729 Lefraneu Drive SE_

_BRSO Location:__ Guardian Hall_

_2:00am, Guardian Initiation_

_10… 9… 8… _Rick relaxed in his chair, adjusted the BRSO headset so it fit just right, and placed his hands in ready position. _3… 2… 1… _The game was about to begin. When the timer hit zero, the world exploded in a flash of white, and it looked like Rick's Guardian was in some kind of tank, the liquid having been recently drained out of it. With a small white flash, instructions appeared at the top of Rick's screen explaining how to move around. _Arrow keys for directional movement and mouse movement to look around, and it doesn't look like I have any kind of targeting marker._ Still wondering how he was going to do things like pick up items or target enemies, Rick continued to play around with the controls, walking back and forth a few steps in the small cylinder and looking around, although the strong green coloring made it almost impossible for him to see outside.

Suddenly the tank shook, and there was the sound of a conveyer belt, suggesting that he was moving. Although Rick couldn't tell which direction just by looking into a monitor and hearing a few sounds, he was glad to have a few more moments with the controls. The movement suddenly stopped as Rick's Guardian was taking a step backward and suddenly his screen was looking at a tank wall from a lot closer to the ground. _Great, now how do I stand up?_ To Ricks amazement, his Guardian got off the floor and was back on its feet. _So what if I wanted to punch the air right in front of me?_ The Guardian punched at nothing, falling short of the tank wall.

"What the hell!" Rick said out loud. Your avatar didn't get a lot of its directions from bushing buttons on your keyboard, it got them from your mind! _This has got to be some of the most advanced technology I've ever seen, and I didn't think this was even possible yet!_ It was right out of a science fiction novel, but it was as real as his own body, and it wasn't a dream.

Suddenly the tank wall in front of Rick opened up, revealing the outside world. Rick stepped out of the tank and gaped at what he saw. He was in a massive tower, he couldn't even guess how high it must have been, and it was easily half a mile in diameter if not more. _Wow they really didn't cut any corners. Ten-thousand Guardians would fit in here easily if organized properly._ And organized they were. There were a grand total of twenty five rows with tanks systematically traveling down, letting Guardians out, then disappearing into the wall to make room for the next tank. It was an incredible sight.

"Guardian!" Rick turned his head to come face to face with a man in a white lab coat wearing safety goggles. He tipped his head in the direction of an exit. "Follow everyone else to the initiation hall, your briefing should start within the hour." Rick nodded and walked forward, following the other players down a hallway, through the twists and turns of the tower down several floors. The building overall looked very nice, dark blue and black color scheme, various lights and data screens, it was like the most ominous Disneyland ride ever.

Eventually they got to some kind of stadium, where the bleachers went in a large circle around a small center stage where large holographic screens floated around. There were hundreds of Guardians already were sitting down and were talking with one other. Rick could pick up all kinds of emotions, ranging from shock and amazement at the new headset technology to worry over why they were all being led to this one room. Rick also realized that everything sounded just like in real life, like he was actually using the ears of his Guardian to listen to the world around him.

Forced forward by the crowd, Rick kept an eye out for his friends, the most noticeable would probably be a giant muscular avatar packing a rocket launcher and a sniper dressed all in pink. Quickly and easily, he spotted Sofia near the back of the bleachers with Colin and what could only be Scott's avatar.

"Hey everyone!" Rick gave a wave as he sat himself down next to Colin's muscular avatar. "Settling in with the new control system?" Colin and Sofia's Guardians gave Rick a thumbs-up and Scott's Guardian gave him a nod.

"I guess we should formally introduce ourselves, since it's only proper to call each other by our character names here. Hearing it once in conversation when we were creating our Guardians isn't enough." Scott reasoned. "So, my name is Winston Business, it's nice to meet all of you."

"Fallen Rose, a pleasure Winston!" Rose/Sofia shook Winston/Scott's hand. Colins bulky avatar held up a hand.

"DJStarswag is the name, please, just call me DJ." Rose smiled while Winston just rolled his eyes, but this time actually had a smile on his face. Everyone turned to me with my introduction.

"What's your name dude?" DJ asked. "I don't think you even mentioned it back during creation."

"Right, my bad. My name is Whitestar, White for short. Looking forward to blowing a bunch of stuff up, and speaking of which did anyone get a weapon after they created their character?" DJ, Rose, and Winston all shook their heads.

"Nope! We selected our classes but it never gave us a weapon selection, and it doesn't look like we even got a starting weapon. Maybe they'll hand them out during the initiation."

"I hope you're right Rose, even with this avatar being as strong as it is, I want to make things explode not punch shit!" DJ was over-emphasizing everything with arm movements, almost smacking White on two occasions with his dramatic movements.

"What do you guys think they'll talk about?" White asked looking over the stadium as it got fuller and fuller, Guardians still pouring out of the entrance.

"Probably will go over the controls, introduce us to our enemy, go over the rules, basically everything that was hidden from us during out wait for release and then some." Winston answered before changing the topic. "This game feels so real, it's like I'm controlling a body in another world." Rose nodded.

"I know what you mean, when I first figured out that this headset reads your mind I was totally shocked. This game is totally amazing!" White grinned.

"So a smash hit then?" Another thumbs-up from Rose.

"You bet, I think this is our game White!" A bell rang out across the entire room, and conversations everywhere fell silent.

"Attention Guardians, please find your seats quickly. The initiation will begin shortly. I repeat, the initiation will begin shortly." A few moments passed before the group started talking again.

"It all sounds so real, these headphones have built in surround sound baby!" DJ pumped his fist in the air and White laughed.

"Can't wait to get out there, I wonder what the world is like?" Rose asked with her voice filled with wonder.

"If I had to guess, I'd say something either steam punk or science fiction futuristic. Just based off of the plot and what I've seen so far." White speculated.

"Steam punk would be so cool, but wait, the holographic screens in the center…" Rose pouted as she realized that there was no way the game could be her favorite genre.

"It's too clean for Steam punk anyway, and in some ways it seems like it's crossed with fantasy. I mean, a floating continent?" White shrugged. "There isn't a good way to tell while were in here."

"I think we're gonna land in some ruined city, and this is like, the last secret stronghold and we have to get out there, and push the Thilan back so they can rebuild!"

"I've played one too many post-apocalypse games." Winston remarked. "I truly hope that isn't the case."

"What's wrong with post-apocalypse games?" DJ challenged with a raised fist. "You a zombie hater or something?" Winston rolled his eyes.

"No, but I've played that genre into the ground already. Turn based, RPG, FPS, MMO, I've done it all when it comes to doom and gloom."

"Besides," Rose responded, "if the world is all dead, there won't be any clothing stores for me to pick out more outfits!"

"Is all you think about clothes?" DJ asked in a bored tone.

"At least I'm not obsessed over rocket launchers and explosions!" Rose retorted with a huff.

"Alright you two, don't make Winston and I sit through twenty minutes of your bickering, Rose can like her clothes and DJ can like his explosions!" Rose turned away from DJ, which also put her back to White, and didn't turn around.

"Geez you're fighting already and it hasn't even been an hour yet." Winston sighed. "It's a wonder how we even manage to work together at all." By now there were almost no empty seats left, and Guardians were starting to take up the seats around them.

"Attention Guardians, the Initiation will now begin. Please take your seats." A few straggling Guardians who were looking for their friends were forced to sit down as the lights dimmed, and the holo-screens jumped to life, displaying images that matched what was on the installation screen. Seeing them farther away took away some of the effect, but it was still somewhat cool to White.

"Welcome Guardians, to Blue Rift Sanctuary." A female voice echoed throughout the chamber. Suddenly, a rectangular platform began to descend from the roof. Light flooded in from the chamber above for a moment before it was sealed by two large metal doors. "My name is Councilor Jude. I am a member of the Sanctuary Council, the government that protects this great continent. I realize that all of you come before us now in search of adventure and excitement. But I ask that you also come with a sense of duty, to protect what threatens to be lost."

"What a cliché speech." DJ whispered.

"I'll start with our history." The screens jumped to life, showing more scenery images than before, different than the loading screen. At the end of the short slideshow was an image of a massive floating continent.

"For as long as this planet has been in existence, the continent of Blue Rift has floated above the world protected by a natural phenomenon called the Great Barrier. His phenomenon created a barrier that let no creature or machine enter or leave. It protected us from the great evil that rested on the lower world, waiting patiently to strike. Then, one thousand years ago, the Great Barrier suddenly stopped." The screens displayed a burning city, men and women on fire, knives and swords in their bodies, blood everywhere. It looked like a massacre.

"Our enemies struck ruthlessly, and the kingdoms were nearly destroyed. We had been caught off guard, unaware that the barrier had fallen. For the last one thousand years we have been working to drive the Thilan Empire off Blue Rift and send them back to the bloody world in which they come from." The video continued to play, showing shaded forms of strange creatures of various types as they passed by, freezing on some king of mutant kangaroo type creature with the head of a snake, hissing at the camera.

"They are masters of creating nasty creatures that do their bidding. And although we have pushed them back, there is still one small section of land under their control." The holo-screen displayed a two-dimensional map of Blue Rift. Most of the map was blue, but there was a small section on the western end that looked like some kind of folded hand that was red.

"This small section of land still remains under the control of the Thilan Empire. And the creatures they have holding us back are terrifying. We need your help Guardians, to push them back. To drive them off this land. This is your purpose."

"Basically we're here to clean up their mess." DJ muttered. "Good, that thing looked nasty." White nodded his silent agreement, not that DJ noticed.

"Before I continue with specifics, I must ask, is everyone ready to fight?" A massive roar from the crowd, no one was stupid enough to turn this offer down, this was easily the best game of the year for a decade straight. Jude seemed to smile.

"Very well. Each of you will been given a starting kit after the initiation today." The holo-screen showed a large backpack, it looked like it could easily carry almost fifty pounds in supplies. "Inside this bag will be some simple supplies, a wallet with a two-thousand credit cash card, a Guardian communications device, a thermos, and a ticket for a random weapon corresponding to your class. Additionally, you will receive a guide to all the kingdoms in Blue Rift and what laws they have and maps to every city."

_No armor? That's really risky._

"Armor will be provided here at the Guardian Tower starting tomorrow, until then I would recommend practicing at the shooting ranges." There were a lot of groans when everyone learned that they would have to wait to go out into the field safely, but a few veteran looking players didn't seem worried about it. _Are they planning on taking on the Thilan by themselves?_

"I'm sure all of you are aware by now, but I must remind you. Should your Guardian be offline for more than seven consecutive days, or if your Guardian is not active for a total of fifty days in a cycle, you will be replaced. Do not disappoint. Now, I will continue on to some matters of a slightly different type." The screen shifted to a large building with a large G on the front of it.

"These buildings are called Guardian houses. We understand you cannot be piloting your Guardian indefinitely, so should you wish to log out, you must first take your Guardian here. Otherwise, you will not be able to log out. Also, do not leave your Guardian sitting alone in the field inactive for more than three hours. Doing so will result in suspension from your Guardian." _So no going afk either, at least for too long._

"Every Guardian house will also have a practice area for Guardians, so if you're not on the front lines we encourage you to practice your skills. Remember, there is no killing of another player's Guardian. Doing so will result in revoking your Guardian. Light sparring however, is allowed and also encouraged in the training area." Images of the inside of one of the Guardian houses appeared, and it looked like a five star hotel with a special gym made for Guardians. Shoot ranges, bags for punching and kicking, specialized bags for swordplay, and a sparring arena.

"You cannot buy specialized weapons or armor at Guardian houses to buy more weapons and armor you'll have to do it at specialized shops scattered across the continent. We do not guarantee the quality of any of these goods, each of the stores will be privately owned and operated."

"What's that even supposed to _mean?_ Are they saying that there are shops in this game that will sell us _crappy _products? What kind of game does that to its players? The chicks gad better be worth it because everything else in this game is starting to sound like a drag." Although White didn't want to admit it DJ had a point. Limited logout ability was going to be a pain, and it also sounded like buying new equipment was going to be painful too.

"Every Guardian has a storage locker on the first floor, please feel free to store your things inside there. Each locker can only be opened by a Guardian in your squad, which I'll explain momentarily. Rest assured your belongings are under maximum level security." _But based on how close to reality this game has been so far, I'm going to guess we'll have to come back to this tower to get to anything in the storage lockers._

"As for how you'll be organized, like I mentioned earlier you'll be divided into squads. You're free to create and combine your squads however you choose, but please note that you will be required to name your squad. Although we do allow it, we do not recommended a Guardian wander off by himself, because should your entire squad get knocked out, every Guardian pilot in that squad will no longer be able to access their Guardian, and will be replaced." Shocked murmurs erupted from the crowd. It was such a harsh penalty, it was like one of those shows where if you died in the game you were _actually_ dead.

"This is such bullcrap." DJ moaned.

"BRSO will be a serious test of skill. We cannot make a mistake." Winston observed grimly."

"With that, this is the end of the initiation. We thank you Guardians for your future contribution and service to Blue Rift and wish you the best of luck. To show our gratitude, once you have your weapon, you're invited to attend one of Obroseon's newest spectator sports, the Keepers. You will not need a ticket for entry, and a lighted street will guide you. Once again, from the bottom of our hearts at the Sanctuary Council, thank you for your service!" The platform raised, and Councilor Jude disappeared. The lights came on and Guardians started hurrying towards the exit, eager to get downstairs for their weapons

"This isn't what I expected!" Rose commented with a slow exhale. "What an intense game this is going to be!"

"What do you think 'The Keeper' is about?" Winston asked.

"I think we should find out, there's so much to explore here I want to get started right away!" White stood up, giving the others a moment to stand up before rushing for the exit with the others on his heels.

"I hope I get a rocket launcher, blowing things apart will be so much fun!" DJ declared.

"I wouldn't use launcher ammo to blow up a practice dummy DJ, you'll have to live fire test it." Winston pointed out.

"Just as long as it makes an explosion and goes ka-boom, I don't really care!" The four of them weaved through the crowd, Rose, Winston and DJ all trying to match White's excited pace. They were lead down several flights of stairs until they reached a large room with Guardians lined up, getting their stating packs and weapons. It looked like the weapons they were giving out were randomized as well.

"A raffle? I wonder if there are any possible rare weapons we could get." Winston scratched his chin. "Interesting." The group stood at the back of the line, which was moving very fast despite how long it already was. In almost no time at all, they were at the front of the line, each of them talking to a different clerk.

"Good evening Guardian. May I ask your full name as you input it?" The clerk asked, looking up at White.

"Whitestar, all one word." White replied. The clerk typed White's name into the keyboard then gave Rick a large backpack, which he put on right there. Then with a loud 'thump,' White turned around, surprised to find a long white cannon sitting on the desk in front of him with a holo-pad on it.

"Keep the holo-pad, it will give you all the information you need. You got a really powerful weapon Guardian, take good care of it, and sorry that it doesn't come with a way to store it. I've included a weapons shop in the holo-pad that should be able to make a good holster for this." _Powerful? This thing is so long it'll take up most of my energy just to carry it around!_

White gave his thanks and carried the cannon to a corner of the room where his friends were gathering. Everyone stared at his weapon with distaste.

"Dude did they give you the short end of the stick? That thing looks so weak I bet it couldn't even take out a slime." DJ commented with a snort. It would appear that he didn't get the rocket launcher he was hoping for, instead equipped with a massive chain gun. Rose got a sniper rifle, no surprise there although it looked standard issue, and Finally Winston got a long knife and a pistol. _Great, so I get stuck with the useless weapon._

The cannon itself looked kind of cool, long one and a half foot barrel, it looked like it shot big rounds and had to be held by sticking your arm in the one foot square part of the cannon. The whole thing was as white as a fresh layer of snow. Looking at the holo-pad, I began to read the historical text.

"White Rock Cannon. a weapon designed for a Keeper. The original owner of this weapon died in a training accident almost two years ago when a bomb prop had accidentally replaced a real bomb in a training session. Use it well Guardian, for there is no other weapon like it anywhere on Blue Rift."

"Isn't the event we're about to go see called 'The Keeper'? This means you got one of their weapons!" DJ exclaimed. "Dude I take back what I said, I bet that thing's wicked powerful.

"But it _is _just a starting weapon." Winston pointed out.

"So what? We said it ourselves, the weapons we got were randomized, meaning White could have gotten himself the most powerful weapon in the game!" White rolled his eyes.

"And a minute ago you were saying that I had a weapon that couldn't even kill a slime, what happened man? You somehow get a vision that this weapon was in the hands of some girl Keeper?" DJ grinned.

"You know it, and she was real hot." White patted his shoulder and placed his arm inside the cannon. His Guardian seemed to know exactly how to put it on, so there wasn't any trouble. White pointed the cannon around, noticing how bulky and awkward his Guardians movements became. This weapon was going to take some getting used to.

"So should we head for the Keeper event? I'm excited to see what will happen!" Rose declared rubbing her hands together. "Based on White's cannon. I'd say they're going to fight one another!"

"Should be interesting, we'll get an idea of the combat in this world." Winston starting walking towards the two sliding doors that led to the building's exit. "We should hurry, the best seats will be gone quickly."

When White walked out of the Guardian Tower he couldn't help but stand there and stare at the city around him. Lights everywhere, spotlights erupting from an area of the city not too far away, and brightly lit arrows on the street, pointing down the street in the direction of the massive, colorful lights.

"Alright wonder boy, let's go." Rose pushed White forward, and they started walking down the street towards the stadium, and their first major event of BRSO.

_Day 2_

_Date__: Saturday, 1__st__ Month, 22__nd__ day, 1017__th__ year D.A. (Dark Ages)_

_Location:__ Obroseon Grand Stadium._

_Time:__ 3:15am_

Black stood in between two massive gates. Their design was old, made to match the design of the massive coliseum they were being sent to fight in. From their studies they knew that this was the most famous stadium on Blur Rift, but it had been closed for the last three years to be renovated. _Is that how long they've been planning this?_

Black already tried shooting the gates, they were made out of the same material from her cell, no chance they were going to be destroyed by her Black Rock Cannon. This was the end for the Keepers. Despite the hopeless situation they agreed to all stand together. They weren't going to the Sanctuary Council win and turn them into monsters.

Rose had managed to get seats in the front row. The massive arena was shaped like a football field, and they were in the best spot, surrounded by other Guardians as they filed in quickly taking up all the seats in the section. White had been shocked at the massive roar from the crowd when they had entered the stadium, it was like the Guardians were already celebrities among the NPC's.

The field below was what caught White's attention. It wasn't shaped like anything, just a simple black ground with blue lines running across it in a grid pattern, making him wonder just what kind of field it was.

"This is so exciting, I'm definitely rooting for the hottest fighter down there!" White rolled his eyes. It didn't matter what world DJ was in, his mind was always focused on explosions and the ladies. White wondered when the show was about to start, they had been sitting down for almost twenty minutes, continuing to banter on about the same topics they had discussed back at the Guardian Tower, when movement caught White's eye.

"The gates are opening up!" The crowd roared in applause. White shifted uncomfortably. His was forced to keep his White Rock Cannon on his right hand since he lacked anywhere to put it, and he had forgotten to store it in his locker back at the tower. _This is just going to annoy me all day…_

Black could hear the people of Blue Rift howling for blood as she stepped into the arena.

She wondered if they even knew that they were almost their protectors. Their saviors. Banished to the fate of trying to save one another from the will of the council. Black looked around. The stadium was massive, and it appeared that every Keeper had come out of their own gate.

"Keepers, please make your way to the center of the stage and stand on of the platforms." Black did as the announcer had instructed, finding Dead three platforms to her right. Scanning the rest of the Keepers, who were now gathered on the circle of blue rings, Black made eye contact with everyone, confirming that they knew the plan. They all did.

"That one in Black is so cute! She's totally going to win this one!" DJ pumped his fist in the air. "Go Black, crush them all!" White squinted to get a better look at the black keeper through his monitor. From what White could depict from where he was sitting, the girl was wearing a Black jacket, short black shorts, tall black boots, and was equipped with a cannon much like White's only hers was black instead of white. _Crazy, but then again my weapon was a Keeper weapon._ Rose nudged White.

"She's got your cannon, you think she as a chance?" White shrugged.

"I don't know, win or lose I hope I get the chance to talk with her, I'd like some tips on how to use this cannon." Suddenly the field started to come to life, the floor of the stadium coming to life, rising and creating various terrain. Everything was still in view for White, and all that was really created were a bunch of broken down ruins that didn't offer too much cover. _This fight is going to be nothing but a bloodbath!_ White realized quickly. But when the bell range for the match to start, the Keepers didn't start killing each other. Instead, the left eye of the black keeper ignited, wait was it on _fire? _The girl pulled out her cannon from its holster on her back, the top strap separating to let the cannon slip out easily, and then she pointed it right towards White! _Wait son of a-_ an explosion of smoke later, White couldn't see anthing.

**Chapter two! Remember to fav/follow if you liked the story! I'll try to get a chapter out every two weeks or so, but really you'll just have to keep an eye out for more! Hope you enjoyed the second chapter of BRSO! **

**Also please remember to leave comments for me, they help out a lot and I read every one of them, if you ask a question I'll post my answer for it at the top of the next chapter. See you all next time ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Alright sorry I haven't updated in a month, got writers block and the holidays made me too lazy to write, I'll be the first to admit it. On top of ALL of that I've been working on finishing that colab chapter for another story so yeah. But luckily I'll be settling into updating every other week at the very least.**

**Chapter 2 Comments:**

**Unkown Soul:**

**YOU DID NOT JUST LEAVE ME WITH SUCH AN CLIFFHANGER! NO!  
>But really, you just got me totally hyped for the next chapter<strong>

Thanks bro, sorry it took so long to get Chapter three out!

**GooBall:**

**Sweeet, I never thought of an fanfic like this, its great so far :D  
>You got me :3<br>Black Rock Shooter rules :)**

Glad you think so! More to come to hope you like what comes your way, and yes, Black Rock Shooter is the best.

**Crimson Homura:**

**Great story, keep it up!  
>I noticed an error and the end of chapter 2, you said her right eye. Black's left eye is the fire one, not the right. White Rock Shooter (from the game) is the red right-eye fire.<br>Besides that, good luck!**

*Grumbles something quietly* Good catch, as I said in my edit to Ch.2 I made a perspective error that you brought to my attention. Oh well, not the first mistake and won't be the last! Thanks for the support too ;)

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter Three: The Second White<strong>

_Day 2_

_Date__: Saturday, January 22__nd__ 2015_

_Location:__ Obroseon Grand Stadium_

_Keeper Battle No.1_

When the smoke cleared, White got up took a look over the railing, finding that the wall hadn't even been scratched, pieces of steaming black stone that had come from the female Keeper's cannon just seconds before were on the ground around the impact site. White sat back down amazed and confused as to what just happened. _That girl in black just tried to blast a hole in the wall and none of the Keepers are actually fighting one another, what the hell is going on?_ Clearly the audience was thinking the same thing. Confused voices began to fill the air, each of them asking a similar question, what kind of event was this?

"What just happened? We just got shot at by a chick in a bikini top!" DJ shouted. "What's the deal, they aren't event fighting each other!" Rose took out her sniper rifle, detaching the scope so she could look more closely at the situation.

"It's like they don't want to fight each other." Rose commented. "They're looking at each other like their trying to come up with a plan." Winston looked down at a piece of paper that had had been holding onto since the group had walked inside the stadium.

"The schedule says this is an all out melee, and a fight to the death. Maybe the Keepers are protesting killing one another."

"They look like they're our age, what do you think Rose?" White asked.

"They're definitely our age, maybe they trained together for years and aren't willing to kill each other, if that's the case I hope they stop this!" Rose put down the scope.

"No kidding! If they stop this that means there are more babes to pick up, wait this is a fight to the death!?" DJ looked at Winston and the words finally sunk in for White too. Only one Keeper was walking out of this arena. _They're just kids, even if this is just a game. What the hell is this about?_

From some of the muttering from behind White, it appeared that a lot of the other Guardians had noticed this detail as well, and some were even leaving the stadium, unwilling to watch teenagers kill one another. It was too much like a book they had read in reality, and this was far from a joke for those people.

* * *

><p>"Tch, what a nuisance, why can't they be good Keepers and just start killing one another?" A female voice asked the man sitting next to her. The man, who was dressed in a white lab coat, shrugged.<p>

"I warned you years ago that having Arstil as their instructor would end like this." The man took a sip of the wine sitting next to him. "Shall I give the Keepers some motivation?" The woman nodded with smirk.

"We cannot afford to look bad now, not when we're so close. Activate the chips." The man nodded and picked up a remove that was sitting next to him. Flipping a switch on the top, he placed the box back on the table and relaxed, ready to enjoy the show that was about to start.

* * *

><p><em>"We don't have much time, the council is likely to send out soldiers any minute. We need another plan, now."<em> Black was only half paying attention to the hurried conversation going on behind her, having not moved since she had taken a shot at the wall. It hadn't surprised Black that the attempt had failed, they were all expecting it to. A desperate gamble from the very start. But the wall wasn't what Black was fixated on; instead she was looking at the boy who had leaned over the wall to inspect the damage. The white cannon he was holding had shocked her. Black knew that cannon, it belonged to the only Keeper who died during their training. White Rock Shooter, the DNA between her and Black had been so close they had been called sisters by everyone, and it crushed Black when her accident happened. _But how, how does he have that cannon?_

Black could only think of one reason, the boy was a Guardian, and they had given White's cannon away to this kid. Black felt her anger rising, her emotional suppression training becoming useless in the face of this insult. Pulling out her cannon, she aimed right at the kid, making sure that her should was lined up correctly before firing. The shot looked good and the boy's eye's were wide with shock, but the flaming rock simply evaporated when it crossed into the stands. _What?_

_"Black what are you doing? Those are civilians!" _Black felt Dead's gaze locked on her, but the Keeper didn't take her eyes off the white cannon. Dead followed Black's gaze and immediately understood when her gaze found the white cannon. _"Let it go for now Black, we'll discuss what to with that boy when we get out-"_Black turned around, to find that all the other Keepers were frozen, not moving like someone had paused time.

* * *

><p>"Holy crap we were just shot at again!" DJ shouted again. Rose looked through her detached scope at the group of Keepers, who were all huddled together in a group besides the girl in black.<p>

"They look like they're talking about something, but none of them are saying anything." Rose commented in confusion. "Wait, something's wrong." White noticed it too, every Keeper except for the Black Keeper looked frozen, was the server lagging? _That would be a quick and unfortunate end to this game._

But sure enough there was a small change in the Keepers. White has just barely close enough to see it, the change of eye color in every Keeper from their natural color to a deep red. It was now almost a certainty, this was some kind of event.

"Anyone else see that?" DJ asked.

"Yeah, and somehow, I don't like it." White replied.

"It's like it was a setup for that Keeper." Winston noted. White gave him a confused look.

"What do you mean?"

"Look at the girl Keeper that DJ is obsessed with, she's backing away from her companions. If I had to guess, someone is using mind control or something close to dictate the actions of the other Keepers." White turned his attention back to the girl. _This won't end well._

* * *

><p>Black slowly stepped away from her fellow Keepers, recognizing that something was very wrong. The eyes of her fellow Keepers were turning a deep red, and they were still unresponsive to Blacks mental calls. Slowly, each of them pulled out their weapons and backed away from each other. The crowd erupted in cheer as they realized that they were about to start fighting. Black found it sickening that the people they were going to protect were so fond and welcoming of violence and death. <em>They've never tasted a real battle.<em> Black realized.

Suddenly, a Keeper with two curved blades known as Silver Edge leaped at Black, forcing her to draw her katana to defend herself.

_"Silver what are you doing, we all agreed to not fight one another!"_

_"That time is gone, none of us are walking out of here unless we give them a show, and I'll make sure that I'm the one who walks out of here!"_ Black managed to break free of Silver's blades and leaped backwards until she was a good ten feet away from him. The field around them was no longer quiet, the sounds of battle erupting all over the place as every Keeper broke their agreement not to fight. Black wondered what had gotten into them, and then she recalled the injection she had gotten before they entered the arena.

_But why am I not under the same effects?_ Black didn't want to fight her fellow Keepers, she still wanted to get out with everyone behind her. But right now, that didn't look possible, and without knowing how to stop whatever had been injected, she only have one option.

Survive.

Black's eye flared, and she pulled out her cannon, Black Blade still in her left hand as she took aim at Silver and opened fire. Without flinching, Silver slashed his blades at the flaming rocks, splitting each of them in half easily. Black had anticipated the move but had tried it anyway in case this strange mind control made him forget their sparring sessions. Silver charged Black again, she responded by shooting continuous rounds at him, forcing the other Keeper to dodge to the side rather that keep charging forward. Black adjusted her aim but whatever shots got too close were simply cut apart by Silver's blades. _I'll have to switch my strategy, there's no way I'm going to defeat him like this._

Silver charged straight at Black again, but this time she re-holstered her cannon and gripped Black Blade tightly, waiting for Silver to get close enough. When he was within striking distance, Black dropped low to the ground and attempted to sweep Silver's leg as he attacked with his right sword, but the blow never came. Instead, the other Keeper had read the movement and had jumped over, bringing his other blade back towards Black's head. She barely managed to get her own blade up in time to defend against the blow. _I'm taking too many risks, I need to be more careful._

Black jumped backward, landing on her feet with her blade ready as Silver came charging back in. Forced to take a defensive stance, Black was blocking and dodging blows left and right, unable to find an opening to get an attack of her own in. She found herself being pushed back, knowing that one small slip would mean the end of her life. Black desperately searched for some kind of opening to get her out of this situation knowing she couldn't keep up her defense forever.

After a few more seconds Black spotted a rocket coming right towards them, probably shot by one of the other Keepers in the hope of picking off two easy targets. Seeing this as her opportunity, Black stepped inward when Silver tried for another slash at her torso, grabbing him by the hand and side, throwing him into the path of the missile, blowing apart the lower half of his body, sending blood everywhere. The audience roared even louder at the first sign of blood.

With Silver down, no one was immediately trying to kill Black, everyone else locked in their own small battles that were starting to end. Despite the chaos Black managed to pick out both Dead and Crystal in the chaos, meaning that they were both still alive. _But that doesn't matter, they're my enemies now._

Black was suddenly slammed in her side and thrown to the ground, the force of the impact breaking a few ribs and leaving her in serious pain, and it appeared that a spike had been driven into her body and then removed based on the bleeding wound she now had. Looking up, Black recognized the face Scarlet Blood Hammer, arguably one of the most deadly Keepers in a bloodbath competition such as this. With every blow that drew blood, Scarlet and her spiked hammer grew stronger, and from the looks of it, she had managed to draw a lot of blood so far.

_"You're going to die here Black."_ Scarlet raised the hammer above her head, and Black quickly used her right hand to draw her cannon and blow a hole right through Scarlet's mid-section, but she appeared unphased, the wound healing almost immediately. Scarlet laughed in Black's mind. _"You'll have to do a lot better than-"_ Scarlet was cut off as the next shot blew apart her face, drops of blood splashing all over Black, which she ignored. Blood and pain were of no importance while one was still in combat. What _did_ concern Black was the wound in her side, which was bleeding heavily even with the pressure she was putting on it. Black slowly drug herself to the wall and slumped against it, giving herself a moment to breathe and tot come up with a new plan.

* * *

><p>"She's alive, we still have a chance!" DJ declared, pointing at the girl who was slumped against the wall with a viscous side wound. While frowned, even if she was still alive there wasn't much chance of her walking out alive, not with her condition as bad as it was.<p>

The scene had been gruesome, the game had been rated mature but even While wasn't expecting this, the once clean field was now stained red, the Keepers going all out on one another. The girl in black had been away from the central fighting, which was probably one of the reasons she was still alive. Now, including DJ's star, there were four Keepers left. One was a girl dressed in dark green clothing with glasses and two what appeared to be horns coming out of her head, with one massive skull floating next to her and an odd shaped scythe in hand.

Another was a girl dressed almost head to toe in pink, and she'd been changing her weapon since the first minute. She held some kind of crystal staff at first, but it had morphed into a gun, a sword, and even a massive cannon that shot the rocket that had killed the black Keeper's first opponent.

Finally, the last male of the Keepers left standing was a guy dressed in massive battle armor holding a massive shotgun. His armor had a few dents in it but it had withstood the brunt of the attacks that it had taken, allowing him to remain standing through most of the fight. This guy by far had the highest kill count, quick and deadly with his weapon at systematically wiping out every Keeper in sight.

"This is so sad, can't we just have four winners! I can't watch this!" Rose was no longer looking through her scope, instead she had her face buried in her hands.

Looking around, it seemed like most of the crowd didn't share Rose's feelings of horror, in fact, most of them were cheering on a favorite or grumbling about how their selected champion died. Considering how few empty seats there were, White estimated that only about one to two hundred Guardians had left the stadium. _It's just a game._ White reminded himself, and he had to admit that it was interesting to watch the Keepers fight, it gave them an idea of what they would be able to pull off.

* * *

><p>With her injuries being as bad as they were, Black was forced to watch from her position against the wall as Crystal charged Dead, changing her weapon from the long staff that it had been a moment ago to a massive hammer similar to the one that Scarlet used just a moment ago. Knowing that there would be no way to defend against this attack, the Dead jumped backward as Crystal swung, the giant hammer just barely missing its mark throwing the pink Keeper slightly off balance.<p>

Revenger, the Keeper known for his heavy armor and shotgun skill, hadn't let the combat between these two go unnoticed, and charged at Crystal as soon as she started to swing, getting close enough to try and put a few shots into her side. Having anticipated the move, Crystal jumped forward to dodge and flying right at the Keeper she had failed to kill a second before with her hammer raised above her head. In theory it was a good move, but she failed to notice the giant green skull that crashed into her, sending her flying into the wall, moaning and not getting up. Dead's familiar flying high above her master, having completed its goal it began to fly in circles waiting for its next set of orders.

Ignoring the wounded Crystal for now, the two remaining combatants turned their attention to each other. Dead spinning her scythe a few times in her hands before dropping into a ready stance, lightly gripping her weapon and watching her opponent closely. Revenger however, wasn't phased in the slightest, gripping his shotgun and switching his gaze back and forth between the opposing scythe wielder and the green-hued skull that was looping around for another pass. Suddenly, Dead charged forward, synchronizing her attack with her familiar, the plan being for the Skull to knock Revenger off balance while she take him down.

It wasn't a hard plan to read, and Revenger dealt with it in a way that stunned Black, as he had never done it before during a sparring match. When the skull was close, nearly two feet from slamming into him, Revenger brought up his shotgun and shot it at least four times in different places, causing it to shatter when it actually impacted him. Dead, equally as surprised, tried to slow herself down but was going too fast. Revenger brought his shotgun around, pointing it directly at Dead's head and pulling the trigger.

Spinning her scythe around, Dead deflected the shot and swiped at Revenger, who simply stepped to his left and bent backwards, the blade passing harmlessly over his head. When Dead finally stopped moving she was a good one and a half feet away from Revenger, who shot back up as quickly has he had gone down, spinning around and firing a few more times with each shot blocked by the well placed scythe Keeper.

Black glanced at the cannon still on her arm and considered taking out either Revenger or Dead, but in the end decided against the action. Even if she could take out one of them the remaining Keeper would surely finish her off. Returning her gaze to the battle in front of her, Dead looked to be in a tight spot. Both of her skull familiars had been killed and there was no way she was going to get close to Revenger without taking serious injury. To any of the spectators here, Dead was going to live up to her shortened codename, but Black knew better, and in fact, Revengers only chance is when he had caught Dead off guard by killing her remaining skull with his shotgun. As far as she was concerned, Revenger was already dead.

Dead soon made good on her hidden advantage, one that only a few Keepers knew about since they weren't allowed to actually talk about their sparring matches before now. Flicking one of her wrists, she sent a chain flying at Revenger, wrapping around his shotgun before ripping back to Dead. The whole thing happened so fast it caught the armored Keeper off guard. Dead grabbed his shotgun out of the air, and smashing it to the far side of the arena since she knew she couldn't destroy it with her scythe. All Keeper weapons were forged that way, so no Keeper would lose their weapon in a combat situation because it broke.

Dead rushed Revenger at an angle that would cut him off if he tried to go right for his weapon, but Revenger played it smart and moved the other way, but not in time. Turning sharply, Dead managed to slice right through Revenegr's stomach, cutting the Keeper into two separate parts which separated when he fell to the ground. For any normal person, it wasn't a pretty sight, or so Black had thought. The crowd erupted in cheer after a few moments of pure silence, but no announcement or bell signaled the end of the match, and Black knew why. There were at least two people alive in the arena.

The last uninjured Keeper realized this as well, walking up to Crystal, who was still knocked out from slamming into the wall, and slamming the blade of her scythe right into her head. _We were supposed to stick together, and then the council tore us apart. I will hunt each and every one of them down._ Black slumped and closed her eyes, pretending to be knocked out as well, but she kept her trigger finger ready for when Dead was close enough.

The greed-clothed Keeper turned to Black, and from the sound of her footsteps was getting closer. When the footsteps stopped Black opened one eye slightly, finding Dead right in front of her with scythe raised above her head. In a single moment, Black's left eye blazed and she raised her cannon right to Dead's chest. Dead only had a moment for the look of shock on her face to appear as Black pulled the trigger, the shot echoing around the stadium. Black didn't even give herself a sigh of relief, this was no time to be happy about winning. This victory had cost her everyone she knew, and her only goal now was to figure out why that Guardian had her sisters cannon.

* * *

><p>"Outplayed! Fucking outplay of the century, this one is going down in the record books!" DJ shouted, now standing in his seat and giving a little victory dance. "She really did it! Wooo! I need to her autograph and ask her out on a date!"<p>

"Don't bother." DJ stopped dancing when he heard Rose's voice. "They're just going to make her fight again and again until she eventually dies." White leaned forward, looking past DJ and found Rose with her head buried in her hands, Winston rubbing her back in comfort. White realized why she was upset, and knew they needed to get some sleep. Rose wasn't going to be up for playing tomorrow if she didn't.

"Alright everyone we know who the winner was, let's get out of here and get to one of the Guardian houses." White led the four of them out of the stadium as everyone else was clapping and cheering for the winner. Looking over his shoulder, White noticed two people in lab coats placing the last Keeper on a stretcher. White hoped she would stay alive long enough for him to meet her in person, she looked strong and quite possibly could unlock the secrets to White's cannon, which was now back on his arm.

The four of them walked back the way they came, as the Obroseon Guardian house was just across the street from Guardian Tower. The four of them walked inside to find a similar interior as the Guardian Tower, Dark blue with a blue-green trim. White walked up to the receptionist, who greeted them with a smile.

"Welcome to Obroseon's Guardian house! All you need to do is tell me your name and how many are with you."

"Whitestar, here with three others." The receptionist nodded, typing the information into her computer.

"Room 123, first floor down that hallway to your right." White nodded.

"Thanks a lot, have a good evening." The receptionist smiled and handed White a card.

"You too, good night!" As it turned out, the Guardian house was set up much like a hotel. Electronic locks, well designed interior, hallways with doors every ten feet. It was scary how close this place looked to the real world, and if he hadn't been looking through it in a monitor he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference,

By the time White opened the door to their room he himself was yawning and tired. Winston, the last one inside, closed the door behind him. The room had four beds, a bathroom, a few lamps sitting on small tables, and a desk in the corner of the room. No dresser or television. White flopped his Guardian on one of the beds and hit the 'escape' button. A window popped up asking White if he would like to log out.

"Good night guys, see you tomorrow." White said in a tired voice.

"Night guys!" DJ exclaimed, clearly not very tired. Rose just grunted.

"Remember, we get our armor and go fight some enemies tomorrow." Winston reminded them. White nodded, then hit his Y key, confirming that he wanted to log out. His monitor quickly went back to his desktop, other programs once again accessible. But because of how wiped he suddenly realized he was, he flopped into his bed and fell asleep instantly.

* * *

><p><em>Day 2<em>

_Date__: Saturday, January 22__nd__ 2015_

_Location:__ Rick's House_

_9:30am_

Rick woke up slowly that morning, giving himself a few moments to recall the events of last night, jumping awake when he remembered BRSO, and the Keeper battle. Realizing he had to get ready as soon as possible, he grabbed whatever clothes he could find, raced through his shower, and settled for taking a bowl of cereal into his room as he booted up Cloud, finding Colin already online and waiting. Rick sent the first message.

_Good morning!_

_What's up man, ready to play some more BRSO?_

_ You know it! Any idea where Sofia and Scott are?_

_ Not really, but I'll be waking them up soon regardless *grins evily*_

Rick sighed, knowing Sofia wasn't going to take a wake-up call from Colin very well.

_Don't do that. Considering what happened last night I'm surprised I didn't have any nightmares._

_ I guess you're right, those graphics were way too real, even if the fighting itself was awesome._

Rick suddenly got an alert in the bottom right of his screen. _Scott is online._ Rick added him to the chat room, but instead of typing, Scott decided to actually the both of them.

"Good morning guys." Scott greeted in his usual happy but slightly monotone voice.

"And good morning to you too 'Winston.'" Colin deepened his voice when he said the name of Scott's Guardian, clearly making a joke out of the name.

"Please you two, not this early in the morning, I'm still eating breakfast." Rick moaned. Colin sighed.

"I'm just saying."

"So, what was everyone's first impressions of BRSO last night?" Scott asked, sounding almost displeased.

"Truth be told, gory. I know the game had a mature rating but I wasn't expecting _that._" Rick replied with a mouthful of cereal.

"Yeah I agree, the action was amazing and the girls are so hot, but it's like they were trying to perfectly re-create reality, and succeeded." Scott sighed.

"I talked to Sofia after you both logged out, she'll be on in a minute but what happened last night brought back painful memories. We probably shouldn't watch one of those 'Keeper fights' again." Everyone was in silent agreement.

Sofia's "painful memories" date back to when her mother was fighting in the Middle East a few years ago. Her squad had been attacked while they were on patrol, and only one of them made it back alive, two days later we got a phone call, while at school. It was not only cruel but Sofia didn't take it well when she heard the detailed story, which not even Rick knew. Sofia preferred not to talk about it, and nobody pressured her.

"Good morning everyone!" Sofia muttered as she entered the call.

"Good morning sleeping beauty! Hope all the little monsters didn't come out of your closet last night!"

"Hmm, as soon as we get online I'm going to kill you…" was Sofia's half-asleep reply. The one thing about Sofia that we all quickly figured out in our many weekends of online gaming were that she had a hard time waking up in the morning.

"Let's try to avoid tearing each other's throats out today, don't forget that we start fighting the Thilan Empire, save your anger for then."

"Mmm, I don't think I'll be able to wait until then, I wanna shoot something…'" Sofia moaned, and Rick smiled, Sofia was downright adorable when she was this tired, acting all tough but still too early in the morning to do anything about it.

About to suggest that they continue this conversation in BRSO, Rick realized he had forgotten to do the only chore that he was responsible for on the weekends. Had he not remembered to do this he would be beyond a dead man. His parents were always up at ten am sharp, and if they found out that Rick hadn't made their coffee…

"Hang on real quick guys, I gotta go take care of something really quick, if I don't do this now I'm gonna get busted and then I won't be able to do anything today." Rick heard Colin snicker as he started to take off his headset.

"Better get your parents coffee before they bust your…" Rick didn't hear any more as he flew out of his room and into the kitchen, checking the clock, 9:55. He had five maybe ten minutes to get two well made cups of coffee. Pulling out two mugs from the cupboard, Rick began the process, not even glancing at the instant-coffee maker that his parents used for when there were guests over. Rick had tried that once when he had woken up _really_ late one weekend, and he hadn't been able to touch his computer for two weeks afterwards.

Rick was putting in the last spoon of honey into his father's cup as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Quickly putting the spoon into the sink after a few rushed stirs, Rick placed the two mugs on the counter behind him and turned around as his father rounded the corner, yawning and scratching his arm.

Jacob Brighton, Rick's upbeat and loving father, helped run a small sports equipment shop on the far side of town named Champ Guard. He was known for being able to give customers the best possible service, often taking the employee of the month award for months at a time. Jacob loved everything about his job, the people, the competition, the sweat, and the jokes he could crack at any moment.

Rick had always felt somewhat bad that he had chosen to go into computers rather than go into sports like his dad did, but Jacob didn't seem to mind, in fact he supported the programming work that Rick was doing, saying that it was "the future of mankind."

"Morning Rick, how was your new game?" Jacob asked yawning, walking past Rick and grabbing his coffee.

"It was great, do we have any plans today?" Rick asked, inwardly nervous since he wanted to spend as much time with his friends online as he could. Jacob, catching the hint in his son's voice, smiled.

"Well I'm going to be down at the store all day, and I think your mom is going to take Leah shopping and then take the day off since her job has been really busy, so you should be able to play with your friends all day today." Jacob rubbed Rick's head before lazily walking back out of the room and up the stairs. For his family, a small conversation like that wasn't uncommon. Everyone had things they needed to accomplish, so sitting around the table and talking was more of a dinner activity.

With his Saturday chores completed, Rick slid back into his room, pulling the BRSO headset over his head.

"Alright guys I'm ready when you are." But Rick realized that the call had ended and there was a message in the chat box from Scott.

_We're headed to BRSO, see you at the Guardian Tower._ Rick was going to slap all three of them for being so impatient. Clicking on the BRSO icon on his desktop, all of his other programs shut down as his screen filled with the login screen.

White opened his eye to find himself in the same room as when he logged off, except for the fact that Rose, Winston, and DJ were already minutes ahead of him. Grabbing his cannon, which was leaning on the side of the bed, White turned off the lights and left the room, heading back down the hall to the receptionist desk. It surprised White to find someone else there, since normally the same NPC is tasked to something for all hours of the day. _Guess they're really trying to make this place seem like reality, so it's a new shift._ After turning in the room key to the new receptionist, White ran outside to find hovering cars crossing back and forth, traveling across the road.

Realizing that this road must have been disabled for the local vehicles for the first night, White looked up and down the street for a crosswalk, finding one on either end and exactly the same distance away. Deciding at random, White went left, holding his massive cannon over one shoulder. Interestingly, the NPC's around him, the citizens of Obroseon, were giving White and his cannon funny looks. A little boy actually walked up to him and tugged on his pant leg.

"Excuse me are you a Guardian?" White smiled and was about to answer when a woman, presumably the boy's mother, grabbed the arm of the child and dragged him away.

"Charlie get back here, you stay away from strangers!" White got the feeling she was scolding the boy not because he was talking to a stranger, but because she was afraid of what he would do to her son. _Understandable, after all aren't we supposed to be warriors from another world?_

"It's alright ma'am I don't bite." The woman didn't reply, instead she followed the group as they started walking across the street. White sighed and followed behind, wondering if the other Guardians had gotten the same greeting he did, the little incident still in his mind as he was ambushed at the tower, crashing right into a girl.

"Owowowowowow, watch where you're going block head! Wait, White?" SMACK. As if the pain from bumping into Rose wasn't enough he got _smacked_ by her too? Wait, he could _feel_ that hit, what was going on?

"Wait, Rose why are you saying 'ow' if this is a video game?" Rose turned around and gave DJ a concerned look.

"I have no idea." Winston raised a hand.

"I believe I know why, this morning I read somewhere that the headset that came with this game sends harmless signals to our brains whenever we get hit, so we feel any pain that we receive in the game."

"So what happens if we die?" Rose asked with a worried tone.

"If the pain reaches above a certain point the headset will stop transmitting, the goal is to have feeling as part of the experience, but not so much that people don't want to play anymore." Winston calmly replied. White realized something about the look of his friends.

"Wait a second, you guys all have armor now!" Their armor matched the colors of the clothes they had under them. DJ was wearing massive armor to fit his body, colored dark green without any fancy patterns, and the same went for Sofia's pink armor and Winston's black armor. DJ laughed.

"Yeah, it's not very cool but at least it's shiny and comes with a shield," White rolled his eyes.

"So just walk up to the counter and tell them you're name?" he guessed. Winston nodded.

"Apparently we're among the last one's to get out armor, and only a few hundred Guardians haven't already left on the train for the front lines."

"Alright, I'll get my armor on and then I have to go to a shop that's located somewhere in town."

"To get that strap for your cannon like that Keeper had?" Sofia guessed. White nodded.

"You wouldn't believe how much of a pain it is to carry this thing around all the time, speaking of which, hold this." White left his cannon with Rose before leaving the group to retrieve his armor, throwing an "I'll be right back" over his shoulder as he walked up to the counter.

"Name please." The receptionist asked in a monotone voice.

"Whitestar." White answered calmly, glancing at the male receptionist's name tag, which read "Alex."

"Whitestar… interesting, no armor for you, just a specialized while jacket equipped with a powerful shield, so be careful out there alright?" White, who was beyond confused at this point, accepted the jacket with a "thanks" and swapped out his dark blue jacket for the white one, which felt a little small but still fit for the most part. Not willing to take the time to figure out where his storage locker was, White placed his other jacket in his bag and pulled out the data pad which held the information on it.

"Just a jacket? Why do I get the feeling these guys are trying to throw White under the bus here." DJ commented with a note of amusement.

"Don't forget you said that about White's cannon too." Rose pointed out as she handed white his weapon back to him, which he leaned against the wall as he scrolled through the pad looking for the information on his weapon.

_Weapon Name: White Rock Cannon_

_Weapon Type: Rock Cannon_

_Weapon Class: Shooter_

_Power Rank: S+_

_Historical Data: A weapon designed for a Keeper. The original owner of this weapon died in a training accident almost two years ago when a bomb prop had accidentally replaced a real bomb in a training session. Use it well Guardian, for there is no other weapon like it anywhere on Blue Rift._

_Other Note: If you don't want to carry around that cannon on your arm all the time, head for Keepsake Weapons on Macfer street, just take a left from this tower and then it's two blocks on your right. Ask to speak to Riho, she'll get you what you need. Good luck out there Guardian, take care of that weapon, it may soon be the last memory of the Keepers._

_Good Luck Guardian. – Guardian Manager Iori._

White looked over the note again with interest, and he began to wonder if he was a special part of the game or something, or if it was just chance. The last memory of the Keepers? Sounded like someone was aware that the Keepers were going to be destroyed and wanted to keep them alive somehow, but by giving a weapon of a long gone Keeper to a Guardian?

"Alright guys I know where we need to go, follow me." With the gang behind him, White followed the directions of the note, having to cross several streets and getting some strange looks from pretty much everyone they bumped into, a few even asked their companions in a low tone why they weren't on the front lines. The four Guardians ignored them, not wanting to pick a fight in the middle of the streets and risk getting penalized on their second day of playing the game.

"Keep an eye out for a shop named 'Keepsake Weapons,' that's where we need to go." White informed the group as they walked down Macfer street.

"On which side of the street will it be on?" Rose asked.

"The note didn't say, only that the shop was here." White replied.

"I think it's rather weird that we have to ask for this Riho chick directly, shouldn't any of the guys in there be able to help us?" DJ wondered with his hands behind his head.

"Maybe Riho is the one who designed the White Rock Cannon, or maybe she's a master of the Rock Cannon weapon class, either way I think following these directions is in our best interest." White replied, still unable to find the shop. Winston suddenly placed a hand on White's shoulder, stopping him.

"Wait, this looks like a weapons shop." Turning to his left, White realized that he was right. The building was three stories tall, but the first floor seemed to be dedicated to the shop, which about half of the long building, which had to be at least thirty feet long, was open like a garage. Weapons lined the walls and there was an empty receptionist desk on the right hand side. Looking up, White found the store unmarked.

"You sure this is it?" DJ asked, unsure.

"Only one way to find out!" Rose declared as she marched inside, ringing the bell that was on the counter.

"Coming!" A male voice answered. A few seconds later, a boy looking roughly eighteen ducked through the curtain that most likely hid the (), rubbing his hands off with a wash cloth. He was wearing a worn out jeans and a T-shirt whose logo faded long ago. He paused briefly, looking over the group. "Wow, you're the first Guardians to come into the shop! How can I help you four today?" With a nudge from Rose, White stepped forward, holding up his cannon with both hands.

"I need to see Riho, I was told she could help me with getting a holster for this." The boy looked over the cannon, and his eyes grew wide with shock.

"How did you get that, Master Riho, you need to get out here quick!" There was a crashing sound and a few curse words before a woman looking to be in her thirties stepped out, even more dirty than the boy.

"What is it Oris, this had better… be…" Riho stopped when her eyes rested on the cannon, and White shifted uncomfortably. He hoped this wasn't going to end up being a mistake, he wouldn't hear the end of it from DJ. The gaze of Riho shot up to meet White's eyes, and the glare was enough to kill. White could swear he felt a drop of sweat coming from his actually body.

"How did you get this." She demanded, slamming her hands on the table.

"I- I got it in a random weapon raffle when I first got here, I was told to come here to get a way to more easily carry it around." White stammered, flinching under the woman's gaze. "I didn't steal it, honestly!" Riho sighed.

"I know you didn't, even a Guardian couldn't steal from a Keeper. I always wondered what they would do with one of their weapons when they died. Tell me, when did you receive this weapon?"

"Last night, before the Keeper battle." White replied honestly.

"So that means that White died before last night, well that would explain those stories about Black that I've heard." White glanced back at his companions, who all shrugged with the same amount of confusion.

"Forgive me for asking, but what are you talking about?"

"You were at that little Keeper event last night correct?" Riho asked, ignoring White's question. White nodded.

"Did a keeper with a black version of this cannon shoot at you?" White nodded again.

"Twice actually, once at the wall in what looked like an escape attempt, and then the second time right at me." Riho looked back down at the cannon, tapping her fingers on the counter as she thought.

"What did you think of last night's contest?" White thought back to the night before, the blood being shed, the very realistic graphic, and that fact that it looked like they didn't want to kill each other. True it may have been fun while the adrenaline was high, but it only made the whole thing worse. Had this happened in real life, there would have been an uproar, and thinking about it this morning only made him sure, that competition had been a mistake.

"If I ever see something like that again someone is going to die." White replied coldly.

"That goes double for me." Rose added, stepping forward.

"Cute girls killing each other? Not cool." DJ sighed. Winston just nodded, clearly trying to get into his role-play. Riho looked back and forth, clearly assessing the groups answers.

"Alright last question, who sent you to see me?" White handed his data pad over to Riho, who looked it over. "Iori huh, well that would be just like her. Alright, I'll explain what's going on but not out here." Riho gestured towards the crowd massing outside the shop thanks to the shouting episode that had happened earlier. Waving for the four Guardians to follow, the two gunsmiths ducked back through the curtain.

The backside of "Keepsake Weapons" was an absolute disaster zone. Scraps of metal, paint, and dust were everywhere, tools all over the place, and it was way too hot. Not to mention there was absolutely nowhere to sit. As White looked around trying to figure it out, Riho clearly had other ideas, pushing open a part of the wall to reveal a secret room. Once again, Riho motioned the group inside.

"Watch the shop Oris." Riho ordered. Oris looked disappointed that he wasn't going to hear the conversation in the secret room but didn't protest, retuning to a seat towards the front side of the room. White didn't get a chance to see what he was working on before the door closed, sealing shut.

The room was fancier than White had expected, lit only by candles, there were enough couches and chairs to seat roughly nine people, a table in the center of the room, and a vending machine in the opposite corner of the room from the door. Nothing fancy with the floor or walls, which appeared to be concrete for the floor and plain white painted for everything else.

"So, why did you drag us into this secret room again?" Rose asked, looking around. Riho sat down in one of the chairs, resting her head on her hand, which no longer had the gloves the had been wearing a few moments earlier.

"Because this room is soundproof. What I'm about to tell you could probably get me killed if it was heard by the wrong people. Rose's eyes widened and she sat down without another word. "Let's start with introductions. Riho Kuse, Master gunsmith and the only crafter of rock cannons in Obroseon."

"I'm White; this is Rose, DJ, and Winston." Riho raised an eyebrow when White introduced himself, but didn't say anything.

"You mentioned something about a 'black' and a 'white' earlier, what were you talking about?" Winston asked with a note of interest.

"Not what, who. I was talking about Black Rock Shooter and White Rock Shooter."

"Those are the names of Keepers right?" Rose guessed. Riho nodded, lighting a cigarette.

"The Keeper's were lab bred, test tube babies if you will, their genes hand selected and modified to make them the perfect soldiers. What makes Black and White so special is that they're only two what I guess you could call sisters. At first they intended to make two of White Rock Shooter, but the DNA of the copy somehow mutated, creating Black Rock Shooter. And the two are basically twins." White sat down next to Rose and exchanged a glance, a genetic accident created the now last Keeper alive? It was quite the accident, but what disturbed White more is that this government bred kids just so they could fight one another to raise money. DJ actually had the courage to ask the question out loud.

"So wait, they created twins only to have them fight seventeen years later? Who would do such a thing to such cute girls?" His voice sounded frustrated and accusative, clearly he was taking this well, in his own way at least. Riho sighed

"Let me start at the beginning before lover boy over there loses his mind. Seventeen years ago the war against the Thilan Empire had just taken a turn for the worst, and the people were starting to get concerned that we would lose the war. To put in perspective for you, we were losing almost four thousand innocents every day. The council needed to do something, so they decided to create a human superweapon in the form of lab grown teenagers."

"They were supposed to be the heroes of Blue Rift?" White interrupted, shock filling his voice. Riho gave him a death glare, basically telling White to shut up.

"Yes, now don't interrupt. Don't you Guardians have manners?" White looked at the ground, embarrassed that an NPC told him off. "I don't know why they're called Keepers and I don't know much about the first ten years of their lives, but what I do know is that I was approached by a man who was overseeing the project roughly seven years ago. He wanted custom made weapons out of a strange new metal that I had never even heard of before, and gave me a list of Keepers complete with their fighting style and preferred type of weapon." White glanced down at his cannon, which had to be made out of the strange metal, wondering how someone who was supposed to be a super weapon would die.

"I figured that he was giving me more information than he was supposed to, but it helped me do my job. The guy gave me all the information I know on the Keepers too, surprised I actually gave a damn at the time. But something happened in the council and the Keepers were replaced with you Guardians. Beyond that everything else is a mystery. I don't know how White Rock Shooter died or what happened to the rest of the Keepers after I made the weapons. The man kept me informed up until he told me about the Keeper match." White continued to look over the weapon, and now Black shooting at him made sense. _She must have been furious when she saw me with her sister's cannon._

"Of course none of that matters now though, Black's the only one left and she isn't going to live very long." Riho stood up. "You came here looking for a better way to carry that thing around right? Actually I never got to deliver the harness for the White Rock Cannon, so I'll go find that for you, just promise me one thing." White looked up at Riho, who was standing over him with another glare. "Take care of that cannon, those weapons I made for the Keepers were special. I think it's the only time I actually cared about the safety of those taking weapons I made." Riho left the room, pulling on a handle to move the heavy concrete door as it slid. The four Guardians just sat there in silence. They had just learned something that no one else on Blue Rift could ever know about, supposedly anyway.

"You know, the deeper we get into this, the less it seems like a game." Rose sighed.

"We've only been at this for two days but you're right, those are some _really _advanced NPC's. You saw the way she reacted to White cutting her off, that wasn't a scripted conversation." DJ sighed. "Man this is more drama than I signed up for." Rose grinned.

"No kidding, 'lover boy.' I like this woman, she's got spunk."

"So what happens now." Winston asked. "We know the truth about the Keepers, what do we do with it?"

"Nothing for now," White replied. "For now we need to report to the front lines to prevent anyone from getting suspicious, but I want to find out more about Black and White Rock Shooter, and the only way we do that is by talking to Black." As White finished the door opened back up, revealing Oris holding some kind of white harness.

"Here, put this on. My master made a few improvements to this over the years in case she ever got the chance to give this to White, the other one that is." The harness didn't look like it could hold the cannon at all, there were a few straps that looked like they would slip on over White's shoulders like a back pack, but other than that it was like one open ended hat for the cannon. White looked at Oris with confusion.

"How does this thing work exactly?" White asked as he took the harness from Oris.

"Put it on and I'll show you." White did as he was told, and found that there wasn't much weight to the device itself, but White did feel something strange bumping against his back. Oris, taking the cannon from the table, pushed it against White's back, there was a clicking sound and although he couldn't feel any additional weight on his body, he somehow knew that there was more weight there.

"What did you just do?"

"Dude, you have no idea how cool that looks." DJ grinned. White spun around, trying to see what the apprentice had done.

"That harness has two what we call 'smart magnets.' Unless you put your hand in that cannon in pull it out, it won't budge." Oris explained as White finally found the cannon, the trigger end of the cannon sticking out behind his right shoulder at an angle where he could easily reach back with his right hand and grab it.

"Wow, this is really cool." White complemented as he tested it, pulling the cannon out and returning it a few times before turning to Oris. "Thanks, this is going to make my life so much easier." Oris nodded and escorted the group back to the front of the shop, Riho not even glancing up from her work.

"Come back anytime, and don't worry about the cost, this one is on the house!" Oris smiled, and White waved.

"Thanks a lot! Next time we come back we'll tell you all about our adventures!" Oris's eyes brightened as the four of them started to walk away.

"Really! All right, come back soon!" Despite learning a horrible truth, the four of them left the shop in good spirits in knowing that the Keepers weren't designed to be war machines, but the next question on White's mind was how to get Black out of the clutches of that stadium.

"Hey White, you already scheming how to safe her?" DJ laughed. "Man, you might just be more of a ladies' man than I am!" White rolled his eyes and elbowed DJ.

"Yeah right dude, like anyone could top you. But yeah, that's the plan later on, for now we should follow Winston's suggestion and make our way to the front lines, despite all of this corruption and bad ideas of how to deal with the Thilan Empire, they are of course why we're here. So, is everyone ready to blow stuff apart?" Rose gave an evil grin, DJ a thumbs up, and Winston just nodded.

**To be honest I had more planned for this chapter but this seemed like a good place to end it. Got stalled on the fighting scenes, (kind of my weakness as a writer…) but worked through it. Got some great plans for Ch.4 and 5, *grins evilly.* Anyhow if you have any questions please don't be afraid to ask them, I'll make sure I get them answered when I release the next chapter! Have a great weekend everyone!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright, sorry I'm late, I had to re-write the chapter once, didn't go in the direction I wanted it to so I had to scrap it and start over again. Also less time for me to write since I'm often watching the League of Legends Championship Series Thur-Sun when I'm not actually PLAYING the game. Still, I hope to be on time in two weeks.**

**Rest in peace Monty Oum, you will be dearly missed.**

**COMMENTS ON CHAPTER THREE AND BEYOND:**

**Crimson Homura:**

**Oh my god, this is going to be awesome. I'm guessing that they are going to rescue Black after learning 'the truth', but Black will just go rage on them when she sees the cannon.**

SHHH NO SPOILERS… ;)

**UnkownSoul:**

**Aaaahhhhh... great chapter, nothing else to say!**

Tried to think of some witty pun to use hear, (and I thought hard) but I got nothing. Regardless thanks and hope you enjoy this chapter!

**BRSLoverr:**

**Oh mi god I cant wait for the next chapter! Your work is absolutely brilliant!**

Glad you like the story so much! Hope this chapter pleases!

**Alright that's everyone, hope this one is somewhat enjoyable!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four: Squad Keeper<strong>

_Day 2_

_Date__: Saturday, January 22__nd__ 2015_

_Location__: Obroseon Grand Station_

_Time__: 11:15 P.E.T. (Pacific Earth Time)_

After thirty minutes of being lost, asking strangers for directions, and following DJ's unparalleled failure at picking direction, White felt relief as he stood inside the biggest train station on Blue Rift, Obroseon Grand Station. The whole place was lit by numerous chandeliers at least two stories above where he was standing, and what wasn't illuminated by those was covered by other fancy looking lights that hung from the walls. In a few words, rich, stylish, and classy.

"This place is like it came out of a fairy tale!" Rose exclaimed, dashing forwards and looking around with a sparkle of wonder in her eye.

"Yeah, seems wasted on a train station that took way too long to find though." Winston commented with a quick glance at DJ, who rushed to defend himself.

"There were two streets okay! We had a fifty-fifty shot, and as it turns out this _wasn't_ some rich guys' mansion in the middle of the city! Sorry for making mistakes!" White waved his hand up and down, signaling for DJ and Winston to no ruin the moment while keeping his eyes focused on the electronic board that was attached to the wall in front of them, since the glamour and size of the station only lasted in the waiting area.

"Alright guys cool it, we need to find out which train we're taking to get to the western front of Kheawuton, otherwise we're going nowhere fast." So focused on the board of arrivals and departures, White almost didn't feel Winston tapping on his shoulder, who then pointed to a hallway on the eastern side of the room guarded by an armed man.

"What makes you think that's it?" White asked.

"Why would they have a single guarded hallway?" Winston countered. After taking a brief moment to bring Rose back to the real world, the group walked over to the guard, who noticed them a few feet before they were stopped.

"Stragglers, glad you made it in time." The soldier commented neutrally, not even looking up from his data pad. "The last train is just about to leave, all the Guardians left behind were going to be stuck cleaning bathrooms until tomorrow." White, Rose, and DJ all got disgusted looks on their faces before dashing down the hall with Winston close behind. The words of the station guard enough to force White to step on it. _No way I'm spending a Saturday cleaning virtual toilets!_

The hallway was plain, illuminated by dimmed lights without anything special. White figured it was because the tunnel served a military over civilian purpose and therefore didn't require any special decoration, but damn was this a long tunnel! By the time White shot out of it and into the () it felt like he had ran a mile. He wanted a moment to catch his breath but a whistle from the sleek blue hover-train meant that they had to move.

"Wait for us, we're coming!" Rose shouted in distress as the doors started to close, the group clearly too far away to make it in time. Just as White was ready to admit defeat when the doors closed, the suddenly opened again with a man dressed in what looked like a navy blue military uniform glaring at the four.

"We got word from Stan you were coming, and the commander almost left you here. If we didn't need every man possible to defeat the Thilan you'd be back in boot. Never again is that clear?" White had his hands on his knees and was panting too hard to answer right away, although he tried. "Is that clear?" The man asked again.

"Perfectly, crystal clear." White managed to pant out. The man narrowed his eyes, pausing a moment before raising his voice.

"When you talk to me or anyone above my rank you will respond properly, is that understood?"

"Yes Sir!" The four Guardians answered, White in particular giving more force behind his voice in this response, unwilling to get yelled at again.

"Good, Lieutenant Colonel Beals, now go find yourselves a seat and enjoy your last moments of peace." Beals ordered.

"Yes Sir." White quickly ran past Beals and sat down in one of the booths towards the back, finding he had to sit at a strange angle to get comfortable because of his cannon. White and Rose had ended up with the window seats, White taking the seat closest to the back and Winston sitting down next to him.

"Geez he was scary, what does he think this is the military?" DJ's rhetorical question was answered by three annoyed glares.

"Did you really just ask that?" White sighed and shook his head.

"Sorry, bad attempt at a joke I'll take the blame for this." DJ replied, leaning back against his seat, the four of them sitting in silence for a moment.

"So, how long can everyone be on today?" White asked, trying to get a conversation rolling again.

"I have all day, my father is in the board room all day so I have the house to myself." Winston stretched his hands out above his head. "More time to kill some Thilan." DJ gave a wicked grin.

"I've got all day too, more time for shooting."

"Guess that means we're spending all day on BRSO then, I just can't wait to try out my baby." Rose commented, patting the sniper rifle on her back. "But one thing White, how are you going to stay alive with that Jacket? Black's didn't exactly help her in the arena." White shrugged.

"I didn't get a data pad telling me what this thing could do; I was just told that it had a powerful shield."

"I hope it's enough to take a rocket, because if it can't you won't last very long." DJ smirked. "I can picture it now, you in your pretty white jacket flying through the air as you take a missile to the face." White rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Yeah just keep talking tough guy, you'll be the first one here to start crying for mommy." DJ laughed.

"If that happens I'm more likely to throw the headset across the room!" There was a small jolt, White looked out the window to find that the train had started to move, and quickly. It appeared that the train didn't need a lot of acceleration time and within two or three seconds was already going maybe eighty miles per hour.

"Any idea how long it's going to take us to reach Kheawuton?" Rose asked, looking out the window. Winston pulled out his own data pad from his small backpack and began to scroll through it.

"It's going to be at least three hours, real time from the looks of it too. I guess there isn't much to do except wait." White rested his head against the wall. Despite the BRSO headset being able to send signals to replicate the bodies senses in the game, White didn't feel like he was actually on a train. And he doubted he was going to be able to just sleep through this trip sitting at his deck. _We're in for a long train ride._

* * *

><p><em>Day 2<em>

_Date__: Saturday, 1st Month, 22__nd__ day, 1017__th__ year D.A. (Dark Ages)_

_Location:__ Keeper Holding Cells, Obroseon Grand Stadium_

_Time:__ Roughly 3:00pm S.S.T. (Standard Sanctuary Time)_

Black had received extensive medical care upon returning to the underground facility where she was held captive. All but one of the doctors didn't seem like they cared is Black was comfortable or not, just that she lived. Black didn't recognize any of the treatments the doctors used, but she didn't get much of a chance to look at them, as everything they injected her with flooded her senses with an overwhelming feeling of pain. For the first time in her life, Black was sure she had screamed, unable to control her own feelings.

That's when one doctor, presumably the man in charge, came storming into the room, shouting things that Black couldn't make out at his colleagues. The rant lasted about five minutes and then Black slowly lost all feeling in her body before blacking out.

The next thing Black knew, she was back in her cell, all her wounds healed and her weapons gone. Once again she was trapped, but this time she had even less hope. It hadn't taken her long to recall the events of the previous evening, and to remember that not only were all over her fellow Keepers dead, but someone had used a form of mind technique to get them to kill each other.

_But why didn't it work on me? I felt no urge to kill in that arena._ Black sat on the edge of her stone hard bed, trying hard to think of the methods that could have been used to turn the Keepers against each other. Could they have somehow used their telepathic network? No, Black realized that was impossible. Not only did they not know about it, but using that to influence the Keepers would have worked on her as well, and the same would have applied to any form of transmitted signal being broadcast. Then Black remembered something that had happened just before she had stepped into the arena. _Whatever they injected into my neck perhaps? But that doesn't explain it either, unless I somehow got a faulty device._ If that was the case Black knew that the scientists who came in before might return, but Black didn't see the point. There was no reason for her _not_ to fight and stay alive now.

The sound of movement outside Black's cell put her on full alert. Unlike the night before, she planned on resisting any injections or experiments. _I will not assist the enemy in defeating myself._

The shield surrounding the door faded, swinging open to reveal a man in black pants, a dark blue button down shirt, and a slightly lighter blue lab coat similar to the ones worn by the doctors last night, or were those green? Black's memory was too fuzzy to remember accurately. Behind the man were at least three guards armed with rocket launchers, meaning that there was no chance for Black to use this moment to escape.

"Doc I can't recommend going through with this." One of the guards told the blue coat man in a worried tone.

"She's my patient dammit, I'm not going to stand around and wait for Eastil to order some tests before I know for sure she can handle them safely!" The doctor replied, clearly annoyed with the recommendations of the soldiers guarding her cell.

"If you don't walk out of this cell alive, it's not our problem." The soldier replied with a shrug, closing the door as the doctor walked inside. Black stood up and took a defensive stance, ready to knock the doctor out if he came too close.

"Those guards, always too cautious for their own good, but I guess they have a reason to be afraid. They know how strong you are, and I guess I should thank you for not killing me already."

"What do you want?" Black asked, watching for any sudden movements which would give her an excuse to sever the man's head.

"First to introduce myself. Chief of Medicine Syed Royle, just call me Sy. Second, to make sure you're okay, since you're going to need every ounce of strength to survive all of Eastil's tests."

"Why are you helping them?" Black asked, keeping her tone neutral and without any emotion. Sy smiled and shrugged.

"To be honest, I was originally with Project Keeper because I believed that you would save us all, but when your purpose was changed I figured I'd stick around and give you a friendly face, since everyone else here only see's you as weapons."

"Why haven't I seen you before now?" Black asked, wondering if this was some kind of trick to get Black to open herself to weakness. Sy risked leaning against the back wall, Black tensed but didn't move.

"Because of Obroseon standard medical practices, the Chief of Medicine only get's directly involved in the most severe cases. Everything else is left to the other doctors. Since you all were so precise in your training, there was nothing worse than a few cuts and bruises, except of course for one incident." Black knew what he was talking about, the accident with her sister nine years ago.

"You were the one who failed to save White?" Black asked, anger creeping into her voice.

"Yes, and it pains me every day. Your sister was the only patient I haven't saved since I started practicing medicine. They say the first loss is the hardest, but having to oversee her sister and keep going, I still don't know if I've gotten over that yet." Although his voice was strong, Black could sense the truth in Sy's words, this man could be a valuable ally, as long as she didn't get too attached. Of course there was still one last pressing question that she hadn't gotten an answer to.

"So why are you here?" Sy sighed.

"Don't I get to ask any questions of my own? Since you're my last patient and we're broken away from stand procedure I was hoping to get a few of my own questions of my own answered.

"You haven't earned the right to ask me anything." Sy let out a sharp breath and pushed himself off the wall.

"I figured as much, here take this." Sy threw an object at Black, who caught it mid air and looked at it, and was surprised to find a paperback book, called _Rebellion Rising_.

"Where did you get this, books like these are almost extinct." Sy, who had opened the door and had almost walked out, turned to give Black a knowing smile.

"I think you'll find I'm full of surprises." With that Sy shut the door, leaving Black alone in the cell once again. She turned the book over a few times, knowing she shouldn't care about a bunch of paper with fictional stories, but at the same time she was interested, possibly out of boredom. It wasn't like she was getting out of this prison anytime soon. Sitting herself down on the bed, she opened the book and turned to the first page.

* * *

><p><em>Day 2<em>

_Date__: Saturday, January 22__nd__ 2015_

_Location__: Kheawuton: Zina Sector_

_Time__: 14:25 (2:25pm) P.E.T. (Pacific Earth Time)_

The train ride had been so boring, no snacks, no movies, and no one feeling tired enough to sleep. In fact everyone had been so fed up with the travel time that they had pulled out their phones and had started playing games with each other back in the real world, rotating to get food since the train wasn't a logout zone. Everyone had breathed a sigh of relief when the train finally stopped.

"At last, I don't know how much longer I was going to be able to look at that wasteland." DJ commented, stretching his Guardians hand above his head. White raised an eyebrow and checked out the window.

"But the station is in the _middle_ of this wasteland."

"I know, but at least I won't have to look at it from a train, too depressing that way!" DJ replied, stretching a hand across his body.

"You're so weird DJ." Rose sighed. The sound of a clicking megaphone got their attention.

"Alright Guardians, you all know why you're here and who our enemy is. I expect everyone to register their squad with me after getting off the train and report right the general for your orders. The Thilan Empire has decided to rally their forces on an attack on our forward position, and we need every man to defend it. Let's move!"

White briefly stretched before standing up, double checking his cannon briefly before he left his seat.

"Finally, I get to blow everything up!" DJ announced, his muscular body hitting the table as he sharply brought himself to hit feet.

"I'm going to look forward to taking off some heads with my beauty." Rose commented, briefly loosing herself in some strange fantasy as she rubbed the barrel of her sniper.

"Then let's go get ourselves registered." Enough people had departed the train for the four of them to start working their way forward, but with the sea of Guardians trying to get out, it was impossible to try and weave through the crowd.

"You remember that we can't all die if we want to stay in this game." Winston pointed out as he tried to look out the windows to get an early look at the scene.

"I know, if anything goes wrong Rose will just snipe her way to us like she normally does." White replied with a smile.

"Ugh, please don't make me have to do that again, that was such a pain." Rose groaned.

"Yes, but we ended up the richest guild in that last MMO because of it." White reminded her with a massive grin on his face.

"No heroics please, I'd like at least a chance to get a date with one of these NPC's before you get us banished." DJ pleaded.

"Like you can land a date with a girl in the real world! What makes BRSO so special?" White asked with a note of amusement.

"Are you kidding? The girls here are much cuter than the ones in the real world!" DJ declared without hesitation.

"Are you saying I'm not cute?" Rose asked angrily, rounding on DJ with eyes of fire, and he quickly realized the mistake he made.

"T- that's not what I'm saying at all, you're just as cute as the girls here but you're not going to date me!" White rolled his eyes.

"Dude, you're only making this hole deeper, stop digging."

"This is the reason you can't get a date DJ, remember that." Winston patted DJ on the shoulder.

By this time the four of them were off the train, taking their first steps in the Kheawuton war zone. White noticed immediately that the whole city looked like it had gone through a nuclear apocalypse. More than half of the buildings were missing massive chunks, no vegetation anywhere, and no people. The whole place was a ghost town, the dry desert air drying White's mouth.

Based on the height of the buildings and the layout of the city (from what White could recall from his Human Geography class,) White guessed that Sanctuaries Army was camped out in the downtown business districts, the most cover but also lots of places for the enemy to sneak in from, which probably made it difficult to find a defendable location that could protect the train station.

The station itself wasn't that impressive though, and it looked like it had been modified from an old bus stop. The area around the hover train tracks was a mess of equipment and supplies, and the overhead cover looked like it had been thrown together in an efficient hurry. A few holes here and there but it was for the most part a stable building to provide some cover should the weather have turned wet.

"Alright everyone listen up!" White's attention was drawn back to the Colonel, who was standing on a large silver box in front of the train, just inside the cover. "This is how things are going to work, you will now get yourselves organized into squads. The council has informed me that you have the freedom to choose who is in your squad, but you must have no fewer than three and no more than six. If you do not find a group and get yourselves registered to me within thirty minutes I will personally organize you into a squad." It didn't take a genius to figure out who White was going to pair with. The group shared a fist bump before walking up to Colonel Beals.

"Why am I not surprised that the four of you are together, glad to see you're first at something." Beals snorted in amusement that wasn't as sarcastic as White had expected him to be. "So what's the name of your squad?" White looked back, but everyone was looking to him to give their squad a name.

"Squad Keeper." White informed the Colonel, who gave White a strange look before writing the name into the data pad using his finger.

"Interesting name, so you saw the Keeper event last night too? What you four fans or something?"

"God no!" Rose exclaimed, sounding appalled at the suggestion, "It was horrible, if anything we're honoring them with this name." Beals held up a hand to stop Rose before she could continue ranting.

"Relax, I'm with you. Those Keepers could have been used to keep us all safe, they had a lot of talent, damn politicians trying to make some quick money by selling tickets to watch minors kill each other. Alright, just tell me the names of everyone in your squad and we'll be good to go." Beals input the names of everyone as White read off everyone's names.

"Alright it's official, Squad Keeper it is. Go ahead and wait over on the other side of the station until I can get everyone else registered, we'll be heading out for our base in the center of Zina Park shortly." With a nod, the four Guardians left the Colonel to his registration duties and walked to the far corner of the train station. DJ leaned against one of the wooden supports, while White, Rose, and Winston all sat down. White was growing increasingly concerned for Rose, who once again was staring at the floor with a depressed look on her face. _The Keepers must remind her of what happened with her mother._ White realized internally, suddenly doubting if playing this game had been a good idea.

"Rose, what is it? Every time someone brings up the Keeper event you freak out, like it was happening in real life." Winston observed, sounding very confused. White realized that his friend hadn't transferred to their school district yet when Rose's mother died. It had been both heroic and tragic, and it took Rose almost a year to open about what happened.

"When is something like this not happening in real life? How could any game company think doing this was alright, and what's more no one seems to care! Everyone just sees them as toys to play with and enjoy before tossing them aside!" Rose cried, finally unable to hold back her tears. DJ sighed and shook his head.

"Maybe we should ask to take the train back to Obroseon and ask to quit, I don't know if we should put Rose through any more of this." Winston turned to him with the same look of confusion.

"Can someone explain to me what's going on?"

"Well, it's a little hard to explain…" White began, but was quickly cut off by Rose.

"No, let me. My mother's story is mine to tell, so let me tell it." DJ sighed again and White just started scratching Rose's back, which he guessed she could feel in the real world because the tension in her shoulders started to ease up. After a few moments of Rose taking some deep breaths, she began her story.

"It happened when Rick, Colin, and I were all still in grade school." Rose began, using everyone's real names despite still being in game. No one tried to correct her, figuring it was easier for their friend if she told the story this way.

"My mother was part of a special international police force that protected children from underground criminal societies. We didn't have to worry about anyone coming for us to try to get to mom, the government always made sure we were hidden, we even had different last names to help keep the connection hidden. It was really cool, my mother would always come back with presents and stories about all the kids she saved. Then one day she left, Europe is where she said she was going." Rose smiled but started crying again. White wanted to stop her but knew he would never hear the end of it if he did.

"We didn't hear from her in over a month. I didn't think anything of it, sometimes she was gone for three months at a time. But then one day a man showed up at our door, and somehow I knew she wasn't coming home again. The man gave me the journal she kept every day, despite the risk she ran by keeping one in her work. Every entry was addressed to me, and it explained every job she had ever done, the names of each kid she saved." Rose smiled. "I was so happy to know about all the good she did in the world. But this last one was about taking down a child slavery ring in Europe. Every entry was filled with determination, the next one more than the last as she got reports of the things that would happen to these kids, some as young as three. Then they went in, she saved them all, before having to manually detonate a bomb to stop the group from escaping." Rose broke down after that, her words coming out in sobs and barely audible. It was like she wasn't even trying to tell it like a story anymore but was just reliving the whole thing.

"They called… her a hero… but I hated them! They knew it was too dangerous to move in that night! Why? If they had just waited one more night, dad wouldn't be depressed, we wouldn't be living off the charity of everyone else! Why do people think that experimenting on kids, on anyone is okay?" White stopped Rose after that, quietly telling her that she had said enough, hugging her in an attempt to comfort her. Winston sat there stunned at the whole thing, now realizing why last night had been so hard. The whole thing was so close to how the game had progressed so far on Blue Rift with the Keepers.

"Rose I'm sorry, I had no idea." Winston apologized, but Rose shook her head, wiggling free of White.

"You couldn't have known. I haven't talked about it with anyone in years. I'll be okay, I just need to focus on something. I know I shouldn't be getting all worked up about the Keepers because this is a game, but it all feels real, the sights, the people, it almost feels like this isn't a game at all." Winston nodded.

"I know what you mean, this feels like some other reality, not a game. I wouldn't be surprised if this game ends up being the first artificial reality."

"Wait, does that mean there are no limitations on what we can do here?" DJ asked with a note of surprise in his voice. Winston shrugged.

"If that's true, we should be able to rescue the Keepers and stop whatever is going on in the government."

"Agreed, now let's get moving." White replied coldly, standing up. DJ raised an eyebrow.

"More determined than ever to save Black? What are you thinking of ditching the army?" White looked at DJ in confusion.

"What? No, I mean yeah kind of. But that's not what I meant. Look, the Colonel is about ready to start moving." DJ followed White's finger as it pointed to Colonel Beals, who was rallying the Guardians so they could start moving. White stood up.

"Alright everyone, keep in mind that the main reason the Keepers were created was because of the Thilan, so we can start by taking our anger out on them, what do you say?" Everyone nodded and followed White as their squad name was called.

White looked around, including Squad Keeper, there where nineteen teams of Guardians, most of them in groups of four or five, including the one group of six that had been put together with the remaining Guardians. It appeared to White that the Shooter class had been the most popular, probably because of the balanced spread of stats that the class had offered.

"Alright can I have everyone's attention!" Beals wasn't using the megaphone this time, and could barely be heard over the constant chatter of one-hundred Guardians. So after ten minutes of shouting and shushing from the Sanctuary soldiers that had been on the train with them, everyone was finally listening.

"You'd think this was the first grade." DJ snickered, and White smiled in reply.

"Alright, Welcome to the former Kheawuton capital city of Fisdan. This was one of the first cities to fall at the turn of the century seventeen years ago. Now it is your job to take it back. After you got yourselves organized I received a message from command regarding your orders. It has been stated by the council that you are free to take whatever initiative you deem necessary to stop the Thilan empire from pushing further into this city. Three and a half miles northwest of here is base camp Zina, which was held by General Medias in a massive Thilan attack ten years ago. Every time you wish to depart your Guardian bodies here on the front lines, you must go to that base. We understand that you may wish to return to Obroseon or visit one of the other kingdoms, this is fine as well. Every day at noon a train will arrive here to pick up and drop off Guardians, this will be your only time to come and go from the battlefield. Is that understood?" Nods from the audience signaled that the Guardians understood.

"Very well, now regarding your squads, let me remind you that should everyone in your squad perish, you will no longer be Guardians. However until everyone of you is on the ground eating dirt, none of you are dead. All you have to do is drag the bodies of your squad mates back to Zina, and we will get them back in the action. Meaning teamwork and caution are essential, now, go do some damage!" Squads of Guardians left, some together, others separately. White and the rest of Squad Keeper remained until the majority had left before moving north, trusting White to find them trouble.

"Hang on a second Squad Keeper, General Caelus has special orders for the four of you." White turned around and have Colonel Beals a look of confusion.

"What do you mean 'special orders'?" DJ rolled his eyes and began muttering under his breath, something about getting rid of the Keeper sympathizers.

"I told him you had a Keeper weapon, and the two of us agreed that you might be able to help us out of a bit of a tough spot."

"What kind of 'tough spot' are we talking about?" Winston asked cautiously.

"Would you four relax, I'm not about you to send you into a suicide mission!" Beals replied defensively.

"So what mission are we talking about, and how did you know about White's weapon being a Keeper weapon?" Rose asked in an accusing tone. Beals sighed in defeat, realizing that he wasn't going to gain the trust of White and his friends with his request that potentially could get them all killed.

"A few miles east of here is an old factory, used to produce heavy tanks and ammunition for the army. Two years ago it fell into enemy hands and has been pumping out enough of these heavy tanks to build a small city with. They can't get into the city because of their size but they've been creating massive problems across Kheawuton."

"And you want us to go clear it out?" White guessed, which got a shake of Beals' head in reply.

"Not quite, there's too many Thilan soldiers in the area to go reclaim it for ourselves, and the position is too hard to hold. No I want you to take a bomb and blow the place apart, it should lighten the load elsewhere for our army boys." It even _sounded_ like a suicide mission, go into the middle of enemy territory with a bomb strapped to our back and hope we can blow up a heavy weapons factory!

"Alright you can count on us!" White declared, giving a thumbs-up. His three friends gaped in shock.

"White you can't be serious!" Rose protested. "This is practically a suicide mission!" White turned and grinned at Rose.

"Exactly." Rose took a step back, her face now filled with confusion. She turned to Winston.

"What?" Was the only word she could muster.

"I think he means to say that we've thrived off of doing the impossible, and that we're going to test our limits, that right?" White shrugged.

"I don't know about the whole testing our limits thing, but the first part is right." White turned back to Colonel Beals, who was looking back and forth between Rose and White with a raised eyebrow.

"Alright, well we'll have someone deliver the bomb to a warehouse nearby the factory. I'll send your data pads with the coordinates of where to meet. Good luck you guys." Colonel Beals turned and walked past the group, muttering something about how they were all crazy but that's all White was able to catch.

"Man White, you sure get us into the craziest situations." DJ sighed. "Do you seriously think we're going to be able to destroy that factory?" Again, White shrugged.

"Who knows? To be honest I have no idea what to expect going into this, but they need a factory destroyed and we need something to do, works out great for everyone."

"There you go again White, coming up with reasons to justify your insanity. So how far west are we talking?" DJ asked, turning to Winston, who had to take a moment to retrieve his data pad from his bag.

"Looks like it's on the edge of the city, five or six miles away if I had to guess." DJ's jaw dropped.

"What, are you kidding me? We'll be walking for hours!" Winston smiled.

"Yes, through a city infested with Thilan troops, I'm sure you and your chain gun could use a warm up, now come up we should try and get there before midnight." Winston began walking eastward, out from under the cover of the train station and towards the now Thilan factory.

"Man, this game suuuuuuucks, you have to spend all day walking!" DJ groaned as he reluctantly followed behind. "And I still haven't gotten the chance to pick up any chicks!" Rose rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything.

"For the factory to be five or six miles away this city must be pretty big." White remarked, looking around the broken city. Scanning for anything of interest, or anything that needed to be killed.

"Not really, if you think about it this factory might actually be out in the suburbs, where it would be easier to create and move a massive tank." Winston explained, looking down at the data pad.

"What are you looking at this time?" White asked, trying to glance over Winston's shoulder. Winston tilted the screen towards White.

"Looking up what the army has on these heavy tanks, supposedly they can level an entire city block in a single shot."

"So why haven't they used them to reach the Sanctuary base?" DJ asked.

"Probably because they don't want to destroy the city in the process, why destroy an entire city when you have the numbers to simply take it over?" Rose answered.

"That assumes that the Thilan want to take over Blue Rift." White pointed out.

"What other explanation is there?" Rose asked. "Some kind of governmental corruption or something?" White shook his head.

"Please don't say that, you'll get us involved with some government conspiracy or something." DJ punched White in the arm.

"Too late dude, you got us all involved with the Keepers." DJ deepened his voice, "Now onward my friends, we must go save the world from those evil villains!" Rose and White laughed, it was a classic moment for the members of Squad Keeper, spend every moment enjoying life, even if it was just in front of a computer screen.

* * *

><p><em>Day 2<em>

_Date__: Saturday, January 22__nd__ 2015_

_Location__: Zina Sector: Thilan Factory_

_Time__: 17:20 (5:20pm) P.E.T. (Pacific Earth Time)_

It took the better part of two and a half hours to walk all the way from the station to the edge of the suburbs, and it had been unusually quiet the whole way. They spent every second on guard, keeping an eye out for any signs of enemy activity. Their journey was mostly undisturbed, finding mostly broken chunks of buildings or the occasional stray dog. The one run in that they did have with the Thilan was a lone soldier salvaging some poor guy's former garage when they first entered the suburban areas, and Winston quickly put an end to that.

White found combat simple, when an enemy was near and he was looking to shoot him, a small circle appeared in on his screen that tracked with his cannon. The group took a minute to get used to the feature, since it was a lot different than any other first person shooter they had played in the past. Despite some of the controls still being tied to the keyboard, Winston had quickly discovered that all movements could be controlled with the headset both in and out of combat, meaning there was no actually need for key bindings in the real world other than to log out.

Along with the circle, an entire HUD had appeared, if that's what you could call it considering it didn't exactly have enough to be called complete. No ammo counter, no radar or motion sensor, no compass. All it showed was an arrow pointing to each of White's squad members, their shield percentage, and a bar at the top right of his screen with a percentage number under that for his own shields. _Not exactly much to work with, looks like most of this is stuff we're going to need to keep track of._

After another fifteen minutes of walking the sun finished setting, leaving the four Guardians to wonder around the area in the dark without any kind of night vision. Eventually White spotted the factory, It wasn't hard since it was the only structure with any kind of lights on, the difficulty had been finding a place to safely observe it.

The building itself looked a lot like some of the older factories not too far from a nearby city where White lived, three or four smaller square buildings around a massive version of the smaller ones with large tube-like structures that gave the waste a place to go, everything was a light brown color, making it plain and boring to look at.

White and the others were looking at the complex from atop a nearby building that could see most of the area around it thanks to its location on a nearby hill. The group were laying on their stomachs to keep themselves as hidden as possible while Rose checked the place out in greater detail with her scope.

"Check it out, front of the factory. You guys should be able to see it, even from this far away." Rose didn't even have to point towards it. A three story mechanical monstrosity was wheeling itself out of the factory. The thing looked like a giant red boulder that may or may not have resembled a man with two gigantic cannons on either side of the body.

"That… is big." DJ said in awe.

"No wonder General Caelus is worried about these things, three or four of them could take down an entire army by themselves." Rose put in.

"Probably why they chose to send in a small team, they won't want to use those tanks against us." Winston observed. White sat upright cross-legged and sighed.

"Alright let's go get this done. The guys should be here with our bomb anytime now." They got up from their small observation camp and walked back down the stairs to the second floor, where three soldiers in blue Sanctuary uniforms walked into the room as they started down the last flight of stairs. The one in front was looking around, followed by two more that were carrying a large silver container. White could tell they tried to set it down as carefully as possible, but it still slammed against the ground with a loud _thud_.

"Watch it you idiots, do you _want_ to get me killed?" The first soldier shouted over his shoulder.

"Keep shouting like that and the Thilan will find us here." Winston stopped halfway down and leaned on the railway, his voice filled with monotone annoyance. The soldier rounded on him.

"Says who? That factory has got to be so loud that they can't hear anything that we're doing up here!" White raised an eyebrow as he stepped onto the concrete floor.

"Are you willing to bet your life on that?" The soldier scowled, but White didn't pay any attention. "So, what kind of bomb is in there?" The two soldiers that had been carrying the rectangular silver box undid the latches and removed the top cover. Surrounded by blue protective material was a device that was shaped similarly to a model rocket, four semi-thin black legs held the device above the ground, which was a metallic looking egg with a yellow circle at the top. A small control panel that a mouse could have operated was attached on one side.

"A model EN-036, one of the biggest bombs Blue Rift has, it'll take out everything within a quarter mile." DJ raised an eyebrow as he leaned against the wall under the staircase, folding his arms.

"That's a bit overkill don't you think?"

"And risky," Winston added. "We have to give ourselves enough time to escape, which is enough time for the Thilan to disable the bomb altogether." The first soldier shrugged.

"Not our problem, our job was to get the bomb here, yours is to use it to blow up that factory. Later Guardians, hope you're happy, I missed dinner for this." The soldier was throwing the last words over his shoulder as he and his buddies closed the door, fleeing back towards Zina. Rose clenched her fists and growled in anger.

"That guy makes me so mad! I should go teach him a piece of my mind!" Rose began walking towards the door but White stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder, which ended up almost pulling him onto the floor.

"Relax, they're not important. Probably best if they weren't around anyway, idiots like them will only make this operation end in failure." Rose began taking deep breaths to calm herself down, her shoulders rising and falling and she tried to relax.

"So how do we want to play this?" DJ asked, switching to one of the walls perpendicular to the metal staircase so he could see Winston, taking on the same posture he had a moment ago.

"We can't attack during the evening hours, there are searchlights everywhere, and I'd be willing to bet security systems too." Winston shook his head. "I hate to say it but we're going to have to wait until morning to do anything."

"You do remember that this building isn't a save zone right?" White reminded him. Winston sighed.

"And we can't be up all night, it means we might have to do something risky."

"What if we asked Colonel Beals if we could hide somewhere for the night?" DJ scoffed, at Rose's idea quickly drawing the attention of the rest of the squad.

"If this place is anything like the real world, I think we all know it would take the whole night just to get that approved." Rose glared for a moment before relaxing.

"Yeah you're right, so we need to hit them tonight, at least it's only five-thirty, so it isn't that late."

"So when exactly do we want to try this?" DJ asked, sounding in complete disbelief that we were trying something that had a nearly zero percent chance of working.

"Eight thirty-six our time, so eleven thirty-six." White declared with a grin. DJ gave White a more obvious look of disbelief.

"What the hell? Eight thirty-six? How more random can you be?"

"That's kind of the point, who organizes an attack for that time?" White responded, barely able to keep the laughter out of his voice.

"And you guys call me crazy. Fine, but how do we get the bomb in there?"

"Your gonna carry it."

"WHAT?" DJ exclaimed in as loud of a voice as he dared make.

"Yeah it makes sense, you're the guy with the most muscle here, you should be able to carry it!" Rose skipped forward, poking DJ's shoulder.

"Unless you're not manly enough, in which case you'll never get the ladies." Steam started pouring out of DJ's nostrils.

"Not manly enough? I'll like ten of those bombs if I have to! Just tell me where to place 'em!" White smiled. _Thanks Rose, only you can push his buttons like that._ The plan was coming together; all they needed to do was wait.

* * *

><p><em>Day 2<em>

_Date__: Saturday, 1st Month, 22__nd__ day, 1017__th__ year D.A. (Dark Ages)_

_Location:__ Keeper Holding Cells, Obroseon Grand Stadium_

_Time:__ Roughly 7:50pm S.S.T. (Standard Sanctuary Time)_

_(30 minutes before Squad Keeper Arrives at Thilan Factory Zana)_

Black had quickly lost track of time, lost in _Rebellion Rising_. She found the story fascinating, a story about how a major civilization is torn apart when the slave population begins a violent revolution to gain social equality. The whole thing sent Black's head into a massive hurricane of thoughts and questions, why wouldn't the higher social order look for ways to remove slaves as a necessity? Why didn't the slaves try and negotiate freedom? Why should a society even NEED slavery?

The whole thing was exhilarating and exhausting at the same time, it had been the first time Black had ever picked up a book like this before, and she loved it. The feel of the pages, the eagerness of what would happen next, and if Eric, the man the story followed, would make the right decisions for his country in the end.

She also found that the deeper she got into the story, the more she could relate to it. Like her, Eric had watched his entire family die in front of him as he was made a slave by the country he was supposed to serve. _Will I have to start a war to free myself?_ Black wondered, staring at the black marks on the paper page.

When the door to her cell opened it caught her off guard, and she let the book fall to the floor from her lap as she instinctively reacher for her Rock Cannon, briefly surprised to not find it there before getting control of her instincts.

"My my, looks like I managed to surprise Black Rock Shooter, that's quite a feat." Black wanted to beat that smug off of Sy's face, her fist tightening in anger. Sy looked down at the book, which lay face up about fifty pages back from Black currently was. "I see you didn't waste any time, like it that much do you?"

"It's nothing special." Black replied coldly. "Just pages with fictional stories."

"Oh, then you won't mind if I take it back then?" Sy walked over and bent down to reach for the book, but Black caught his wrist before he could grab it. Sy smirked. "I thought so."

"Why are you here?"

"First to check up on you, see just how much that book had interested you, secondly to get you to follow me, I have a somewhat unpleasant surprise, and I promise I only just found out about this." Black knew it was a trap, some way to kill her. Her bad feeling only grew worse when an armed guard brought in her Rock Cannon and Black Blade. Black eyed her weapons, knowing that she should try and make a break for it the second she had them.

"Don't even think about it, there are still three armed Troopers outside, and we both know perfectly well that they won't hesitate to kill us to stop you. Save your energy for the arena." Black shot a glare at Sy.

"Who is there for me to fight? Did they create more Keepers without my knowledge, or am I the new target practice for the Guardians?" The lack of emotion in both Sy's voice and facial expression chilled Black, although she didn't show it.

"Neither. Now come on and follow me." Black took Black Blade, the weapon disappearing in her hands as soon as she had a tight grip on it, then she took Black Rock Cannon and clipped the backpack-like straps together and threw the weapon over her shoulder before adjusting the straps so they wouldn't go loose in a fight.

After her preparations were complete, Sy exited the cell and turned left, leading Black down a straight hallway to the same elevator she had been placed in the first time she was forced to enter the arena, however this time Sy followed her inside.

"There is one thing you should know as you enter that arena. No matter what you see with your eyes, everything that isn't you is your enemy. You must survive, am I making myself clear?" Black nodded while keeping her eyes forward. She didn't need the doctor to remind her of her number one rule. _I have to survive, for my family and my sister. I must find White's cannon._

"Good luck." Sy's last words as the elevator stopped and Black stepped out into the arena for the second time. The roar of the crowd immediately followed her entrance, the citizens of Obroseon clearly thrilled by her re-appearance in the arena to fight for her very life, but now Black didn't care about them. Her combat training kicked in, and the conflicting emotions and all thoughts about her book were pushed to the back of her mind in favor of one goal. Survival, the defeat of her opponent, victory at any cost. Black drew her cannon, ready for whatever stepped out of one of the elevators, but Black froze when she saw what came out of the elevator on the exact opposite end of the arena.

Dead Master.

* * *

><p><strong>DUN DUN DUN! AND THE DEAD HAVE COME BACK TO LIFE! (In case you missed that part.) Going to try and not be late two weeks from now, and sorry this one ended up being so short, I wanted to extend the chapter a little but wasn't feeling it. Actually almost cried writing SofiaRose's backstory! (Something must be wrong with me, I CRIED AT THE BACKSTORY I HAD TO COME UP WITH _) Hope you enjoyed the chapter and will leave a comment!**

**(I'll admit it, this chapter is mostly groundwork and a cliffhanger, you're welcome. If you have a question about the story, I'll make sure I answer.)**

**And to anyone here who's waiting for Chapter 13 of TSOK, yeah idk when that's getting done. Gonna start Book 2 with a small synopsis of what happened in Ch.13**

**SEE YOU ALL IN TWO WEEKS!**


End file.
